Staying Cool

Just how exactly does our Harrison House Curator Cat, Frankie, stay so cute despite the heat?

You could say that he is naturally cool, of course. But he also owes some credit to the architecture of the Harrison House!

Above, you can see Frankie in the main hallway of the house. The front door opens roughly southward, so the hallway runs south to north with a door at each end. This is important for a couple of reasons. One reason is that, on very hot or windy days, you could open both doors to get a nice breeze flowing through the house!

Another reason having a north-south hallway is important is that it means that the rooms are on the sides, east and west. And if you’ve been to—or even been past—the Harrison House, you probably noticed that there are several chimneys, two on the west side and one on the east! The rooms have nice big fireplaces and no big windows on the east and west sides of the house. This means there’s less chance for sunlight to get in and warm the house up.

There are other ways the architecture of the Harrison House helps it stay cool, even without modern air conditioning. Maybe during the next heat wave, we’ll explore a few more!