It was usual to have a second stove in the parlor- the counterpart of today’s living room - when extra heat was needed in the late fall and through the winter. Convection currents, rising from the heat source below, heated the second floor, where the main bedrooms were located. A grate in the floor of one or more of the second-floor rooms helped circulate the warm air. The bedroom floors also had a layer of linoleum that would normally have one or more home— hooked mats scattered about to help avoid the shock of bare feet coming in contact with the frigid floor. There was always a mat beside the bed, and under the bed was the obligatory chamber pot.

The basements, in those times they were called cellars, had clay flooring, and the foundation sides were usually of