Inglenook

An inglenook or chimney corner is a recess that adjoins a fireplace. The term "inglenook" comes from "ingle", an old Scots word (derived from the Gaelic aingeal) for a domestic fire, and "nook".^[1][2]

The inglenook originated as a partially enclosed hearth area, appended to a larger room. The hearth was used for cooking, and its enclosing alcove became a natural place for people seeking warmth to gather. With changes in building design, kitchens became separate rooms, while inglenooks were retained in the living space as intimate warming places – subsidiary spaces within larger rooms.^[3]

Inglenooks were prominent features of shingle-style architecture and characteristic of Arts and Crafts architecture, but began to disappear with the advent of central heating.^[3][4] Prominent American architects who employed the feature included Greene and Greene, Henry Hobson Richardson, and Frank Lloyd Wright. British architect Richard Norman Shaw significantly influenced Richardson.^[5]