The concept of hearth and home are so intertwined that for, like, a zillion years, they were one and the same. Where primitive man built a campfire, home was where the hearth was.

Until relatively recently, homes were built around the hearth. Stone and mortar chimneys were the spine of the structure. Even today, with central heating and electric or gas stoves making fireplaces obsolete, modern homes sometimes have fireplaces designed in as the focal point in communal rooms, points out preservation architect Spencer Leineweber.

"It’s an organizing element in grand rooms, the focal point in a home," said Leineweber. "It’s an aesthetic thing in modern architecture rather than a functional thing. Of course, nowadays the focal point in the family room is likely a big-screen television, sitting right where the fireplace would have been."

Maui author Everett Peacock, whose family subconsciously gathers around the fireplace every night in their high, cold home on the upper slopes of Haleakala, points out that a fireplace is more than function or decoration. It’s magic.

"Fires are hypnotic, drawing on some genetic memory I suppose of safe caves and better tasting meat," said Peacock. "The warmth and ambient light … the crackling and gentle movement of air … give a calming reassurance that light, that energy, is our companion in the night. If I didn’t have a fireplace I’d have a candle!"

The Peacocks are 4,000 feet up Haleakala; the Leineweber live in Manoa. Both neighborhoods are known for their home fireplaces, but for different reasons.

"We moved to upper Kula for the cooler temperatures and outstanding views," said Peacock. "Choosing a house with a decent wood-burning fireplace was paramount in our decision process. The temperature here in the summer is low 50s to mid 70s. In the winter, it can get into the upper 30s."

So, heat.

"Manoa is full of houses with fireplaces, because it’s a damp area," said Leineweber. "A fire burning in the home really helps dry it out." Peacock confirms this.

So, dampness control.

Leineweber knows something about old fireplaces. She’s the architect overseeing preservation of the Mission Houses. There’s a cooking oven in the Mission frame house, and in the museum’s Chamberlain House, the oldest still-standing home fireplace in the islands.

"The missionaries wanted fireplaces not just for heating, but for cooking," said museum director Tom Woods. "The cooking stove really commands the space in homes of this era."

While the museum cooking fireplace has occasionally been relit, the Chamberlain House fireplace has been cold for decades. It was probably difficult for missionaries from New England to imagine a home without a fireplace; but then, New England homes weren’t made of thatched grass.

Most of the fireplace stores and experts seem to be located on Maui and the Big Island, "where there are people living at higher elevations," said Jeffrey Mermel, owner of Fireplace And Home Center in Hilo. "Or folks on the windward side of the islands, where it’s damp.

"Except in older homes, you don’t see traditional stone fireplaces and chimneys either. Modern fireplaces tend to be free-standing and factory made. Even a fireplace built into a wall tends to come preassembled and fitted into place."

If you’re thinking of buying a fireplace, right now would be a good time. Mermel points out that last year’s economic stimulus legislation included a 30 percent tax credit — up to $1,500 — for buying an efficient wood-burning appliance. The tax break ends on Dec. 31.

Since home fireplaces don’t look like they’re sputtering out, what’s the next big thing?

"Ethanol fireplaces," said Mermel. "They’re very efficient, and burn up 100 percent of the ethanol, so there’s no smoke. They also can get that tax break. You don’t need a chimney, you don’t need gas lines, you don’t need wood."

Just the magic of the dancing flames.

"Central heating is more efficient and can warm our entire three-bedroom house," said Peacock. "However, the fireplace is the center of our living space, close to the TV, and the L-shaped couches and the view out to the deck. I think the neighbors can see the glow down below when we leave the fire going as we turn off the lights at night.

"The fireplace is built into a large brick wall separating the kitchen from the living room and then also has a brick outcropping coming out. The bricks warm up nicely where the kids might lie down and read a book there, and the cats always spend their morning getting toasty after a cold night of chasing mice. There’s no cooking, but marshmallows are mandatory when the kids have their friends over for a sleepover."

Peacock’s fireplace can hold four "good-sized" logs, and he burns whatever wood he can find. He keeps a chain saw handy, and even gathers driftwood off the beach.

"Kiawe is the best, but you have to pay for it on Maui, about $250 for a cord," said Peacock. "There’s a pine variation called Waddle, and also available are TONS of eucalyptus."

Peacock says his fireplace is "hugely inefficient" when it comes to energy conservation. He’s saving for a kind of baffle that will direct heat outward instead of up in smoke and out the chimney.

"The most efficient way to heat is a free-standing, wood-burning stove that radiates in all directions, has flu/air control and can heat 2,000 square feet on just a fraction of the wood I use," sighed Peacock. "The Haleakala cabins use those and many of the old-style houses up in Kula do. Before central heat you had to be uber-efficient with your wood.

"On the weekends, I will have the fire running for the entire two to three days, all night and all day. On Monday, when I finally let it go out, we enjoy the residual heat from the brick wall all the way until Wednesday."

Wonder if the Peacocks’ Hawaii chimney is big enough for Santa Claus? The relative lack of chimneys isn’t a new concern in the islands. While researching local Christmas history, Mission House’s Woods found an 1897 letter to Santa published in the Hawaiian Gazette, by Muriel Gibson of Prospect Street:

Dear Santa Claus: I am the little girl you brought to Papa and Mama for a Christmas present six years ago in Waimea. I am very glad to know where to find you. I was afraid you would not come here as there were no children in this house last Christmas. There is not a chimney on this house so big that you can get down, but we will not lock our doors and my room is the blue one upstairs. I hope you will be very kind to all the girls and boys and bring to me a big doll and bureau. Your little Christmas girl. Muriel.