kids in the hall

We finished painting the hall! It was more complicated than I expected, what with the damaged walls, trim, bigass heating duct, and built-ins, but it looks nice. Our hall has a strange shape. The middle is much narrower than the ends, with an obviously added later section that seems to wall off the area behind our fireplace in the living room.



There are built-ins on either side of the section of the wall that sticks out: a little telephone cove and a ladder to the attic on one side, and on the other side a linen closet and drawers.



Horrified by this tale of hidden fireplace woe, I can't help but wonder what's behind our wall. As I mentioned before, we have unpleasant paneling in the living room surrounding our fireplace, and there is an old furnace back there. We have two chimneys, one for the fireplace and one for the old furnace.

We found something strange in the hall. I'm sure it's nothing like the fireplace woe in the link, but it seems that something cool has been altered. From the enhanced image below, you can see that there was an original archway that was covered, but only half of it. Where is the other half?

The theory. My husband suspects the fireplace isn't original, and that the house was once heated by wood stove. He says there's no reason to have a fireplace next to a wood stove. I guess I can see the purpose of the old arch then -- it opened up the living room to the bedroom wing and allowed heat to circulate in the back of the house. But the fireplace seems vintage since it's so simple, so I don't think I believe him. I do wonder what's behind those walls, though.