Lights Up! Illuminating the Bellamy House

The front formal parlor of the Bellamy showing how light from the elaborate gasolier is reflected in the fireplace mirror.

Tours of the museum site often discuss the mechanics of daily life. Heat regulation and light in an era before electricity are common topics. In the parlors, the southern orientation of the house was a major factor, as were the tall pocket windows. Fires lit in winter in the parlors and bedrooms were another.

Throughout the house an expensive form of lighting for wealthy Victorians was by way of coal gas-fed fixtures, called gasoliers. These were a type of the historically candle-lit chandelier that was either specifically designed or upfitted for gas. They would have to be lit each day and turned down each night and, despite their price tag, would have required candles and lanterns to provide complimentary illumination around the house. Enhancing these various light sources were polished brass, lustered finishes and other shiny objects and treatments. Similarly, a simple way to accomplish light enhancement was with the aid of mirrors. The ornate ones in the parlors were bought, along with most of the fixtures and furnishings of the house, during an 1860 trip to New York by John and Eliza Bellamy. 

Mirrors at the level of the gas fixtures were used, as were mirrors low to the ground. Sometimes they were built into furniture or into fireplace covers like the ones on display in the mansion. The covers, which were placed in front of the open fireplace any time it was not in use, were not used for women to check their ankle exposure, as an old wives' tale suggests, but to provide more light for everyone in the parlor. The entire Bellamy house was plumbed for gas when finished in 1861 and both wall-mounted and ceiling gas fixtures were placed in hallways and the nine bedrooms.

The Gasoliers
The popularity of gas lighting ballooned in the United States and Great Britain throughout the 19th century transitioning from simpler “bowl” designs reminiscent of oil lamps in the 1820s to the intricate multi-arm morning-glory patterned fixtures of the 1860s. The Philadelphia-based Cornelius Company was a juggernaut in the American gas lighting arena and was manufacturing lighting fixtures and apparatus by the mid-1820s. By the time Dr. and Mrs. Bellamy went on their 1860 shopping trip the company had become Cornelius and Baker and claimed “all the various capitols of the United States have been lighted by chandeliers manufactured at this company,” according to author J.B. Chandler in his, 'Description of the Establishment of Cornelius and Baker Manufacturers of Lamps, Chandeliers and Gas Fixtures, Philadelphia.'

"If we lift our skirts, they level their eye-glasses at our ankles." (Family Friend magazine, 1854) Cartoon expressing a mild Victorian dilemma -- it was often necessary for women to slightly lift up their skirts if they didn't want to drag their hems through wet or filth, but many males found the resulting display of ankles to be mildly titillating (since the ankle was the one part of the lower body which it was legitimate for women to show, but when dresses were floor-length, it wasn't often revealed except under necessity or accident).

The gasolier in the Bellamy's family parlor, shown below left, was made by Cornelius and Baker of Philadelphia. It is especially appealing with little cherubs blowing horns and decorative elements, including circus elephants. Given Dr. Bellamy's politics, it may be no coincidence that this gasolier is quite similar to the one also made by Cornelius and Baker in the White House of the Confederacy in Richmond, Va. (1861-1865). This gasolier is possibly one of seven attributed in 1896 to the original furnishings of the White House.

---

Cornelius and Baker's most stunning remaining piece is found in the Philadelphia Academy of Music. It weighs 5,000 pounds and contained 240 gas jets when that grand concert hall opened in 1857. In 1900 it was converted to electricity. Somewhere between 1905-1910 the Bellamy family converted their house to that power source and the gasoliers were wired for electric lights. Gas fixtures draw heat up and can cause some ventilation by circulation. Coal gases do not burn cleanly, however, so the fixtures and the ceilings and molding above them would have to be cleaned for soot and often repainted.

---

The Mirrors
Each mirrored fireplace cover in the Bellamy parlors has the maker’s mark “T. Bent & Son N.Y No. 18” on its back. Thomas Bent established the Globe Iron Foundry in 1843 in New York, NY. The company was well known for their stable and kennel fixtures and fittings. In 1860 Dr. and Mrs. Bellamy may have visited the Globe Iron Foundry at their 26th Street Manhattan shop to purchase not only the fireplace covers but also stable fittings for the carriage house and possibly decorative iron benches for outside. Thomas Bent died in 1870 and his son Samuel took over the company. By 1890 Samuel had moved the foundry from New York City to Port Chester where it became Samuel S. Bent & Son. (Source: The Iron Age, Vol. 46, September 1890.)

1940s

Today