Victorian Grate

A typically ornate ventilation or heating grate pattern from a Kirkbride building. It's interesting to note the different grate patterns when walking through a Kirkbride building. Often there are several different patterns and you can guess the approximate age of each grate by how intricate the pattern is--the newer grates being much simpler, often just a basic grid. One "grate" in the Danvers State Hospital Kirkbride was actually just a piece of sheet metal with holes randomly punched into it. I imagine it was added at a very late date when funds were hard to come by.