Fireboard

The fireplace and hearth served as the center of eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century American homes. In larger houses that had fireplaces in more than one room, they were often "dressed up" with paintings hung above the mantel and fireboards. The latter were especially common during the summer months, when they were utilized to beautify the gaping hole of the unused fireplace. This fireboard was painted right around 1820, when John Moseley completed the construction of a house on Main Street North in Southbury, Connecticut.