American cooking fireplaces originally were used in summer kitchens in farmhouses throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York. The reason they were called summer kitchens is because when families cooked in the summer they didn't really want the fireplace to heat the house too much. They lasted well into the mid 19th century. At the same time, the more modern Rumfords were in the main house for heating. So the cooking fireplace is really evocative of Williamsburg, which is reconstructed basically for a 1760 time period before Rumford wrote his essays. Now more and more we see outdoor fireplaces and pizza ovens and bread ovens. You see them in combination with barbecues.
