Using Technology

Advances in technology, primarily in the productin of light and heat, impacted domestic life at Hampton.

Lighting
The late 18th - 19th centuries brought  revolutionary lighting improvements that influenced lifestyle, from the time one ate dinner to the arrangement of furniture in a room. At the beginning of this period, candlelight was the predominant method of lighting the house interior. Candlesticks and elaborate fixtures such as chandeliers in the Mansion, together with records documenting orders for dozens of candles, show that the Ridgelys used this type of lighting into the 19th century. However, the family was quick to acquire new technologies when they were introduced. More...

Heating
Hampton was heated by wood-burning fireplaces when first completed in 1790. The house was principally a summer home, and fireplaces had limited success at bringing heat into such large rooms. The popularization of coal-burning parlor stoves in America in the second quarter of the 19th century led to their introduction in the late 1830s at Hampton.  Original bills, historic photos, and surviving objects show that these cast iron fixtures were used in most rooms. Even more innovative was the introduction of a central heat system in the Mansion in the 1850s. This was a gravity-feed hot air system installed in 1857, with the coal-burning furnace in the southeast corner of the basement room under the Great Hall. This was the last major improvement in heating the house while it remained in private hands.  Family oral histories confirm that the house was often cold in the winter months.