CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA—Renovation of the University of Virginia’s Rotunda has uncovered a chemical hearth built as a semi-circular niche in an early basement classroom where John Emmet, the school’s first professor of natural history, taught chemistry. The hearth, thought to have been constructed for Emmet’s use, was heated with one wood-burning firebox and a coal-burning one. Underground brick tunnels provided fresh air to the fireboxes and flues carried away fumes and smoke. Five workstations had been cut into stone countertops—these were probably used by students with portable hearths. The chemical hearth is thought to have been closed up in the wall in the mid-1840s, after Emmet’s death, and the chemistry lab was eventually moved to an annex on the north side of the Rotunda that was destroyed by a fire in 1895. “The hearth is significant as something of the University’s early academic years. The original arch above the opening will have to be reconstructed, but we hope to present the remainder of the hearth as essentially unrestored, preserving its evidence of use,” architectural conservator Mark Kutney said in a press release. To read more about historical archaeology in Virginia, go to "Free Before Empancipation."
