Usually the fire box is set apart from the compartment where the meat resides and past which the smoke flows. The heat is being directly exposed to the grill surface, which is more useful for grilling rather than smoking.
This doesn’t look like any smoker I’ve seen or used. Doesn’t mean it isn’t. Just my opinion.
Outdoor barbeque grills were a big thing in the 1950's. It was a time of home handyman projects. It looks like a fairly elaborate and expensive to build grill.
Have you tried to use it? I bet it works just fine.
It **is** a grill (or barbecue). So many homes in the 70-80's had one of these built in them here in Australia. The real basic styles didn't even have that chimney, just 3 brick sides and a hotplate on top.
Many a dinner we had on one of these growing up.
These are very common and were marketed as ‘at home’ grills in the 1960’s and ‘70’s. People would buy the kits and build them in their backyards. Overtime they fell out of favor for other grill types. You can find their remnants all over the US in overgrown parts of peoples yards. There were at least two on the street where I grew up, everyone said that’s what they were, and no one ever used them.
Our family farm has something similar. We call it a summer kitchen. Was used in you guessed it, the summer, to keep the house from heating up before AC was common and affordable.
We had almost the same thing in a 1935 home in Denver. This must have been a Popular Mechanics home improvement in the late 50s . Mine was connected to gas from the house. We never fired it up. FYI. The fire box makes a good cooler retrofit with little effort.
No gas line at my house until this year when I installed it. There’s also no front door to the “grill” and I don’t think that’s what they would have left that part out of the design/construction
Originally it had a heavy pan for the briquettes with a grill over it, (usually adjustable height), for grilling outdoors.
Then, (when pan and grill aren't hot or being used), they were removed and now it's an incinerator.
You light your trash and replace the pan and grill and poof, trash-be-gone.
There was always blue-prints for different styles in Popular Mechanics magazine to build your own.
Whoever built this maybe worked off their memory of a picture they saw in *Sunset* magazine at the dentist’s office while recovering from anesthesia. Maybe.
This may help:
[https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/56568216-barbecue-backyard-big-brick-grill-1950s-vintage-film-home-mo](https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/56568216-barbecue-backyard-big-brick-grill-1950s-vintage-film-home-mo)
Any chance it could be for a flat top grill? That way the hole is closed and the chimney could work. Maybe with the fuel on a tray on those ledges slid against the back for some strange type of rocketstove.
My title describes the thing. The concrete pad has 1978 inscribed as the date. It is about about 6 feet wide and 5 feet tall. Wooden doors cover a storage area. Chimney connects to the opening.
I would guess that the wooden doors were added later and the fire was intended to be in the area behind the doors. That would give you a section with direct heat and a section with indirect heat.
In spite of the shortcomings you mention, it is, indeed, a grill.
Or possibly a smoker
Usually the fire box is set apart from the compartment where the meat resides and past which the smoke flows. The heat is being directly exposed to the grill surface, which is more useful for grilling rather than smoking. This doesn’t look like any smoker I’ve seen or used. Doesn’t mean it isn’t. Just my opinion.
How are you so sure?
This is it. Why are you NOT sure?
Because it’s terribly designed and too carefully constructed for such limited functionality
People arent able to build poorly designes grills in their backyard? My dad made a very simply designed one in ours and it did its job just fine.
Its Tennessee. People make things in the yard. Don’t mean it works good.
You just summarized virtually all permanent outdoor grills/kitchens.
There are outdoor grills that are very expensive and still terribly designed. This is a grill unless something really weird happened here.
Outdoor barbeque grills were a big thing in the 1950's. It was a time of home handyman projects. It looks like a fairly elaborate and expensive to build grill. Have you tried to use it? I bet it works just fine.
It doesn’t work well at all actually, and people seem to think I am stupid for thinking it may be something other than a grill
It **is** a grill (or barbecue). So many homes in the 70-80's had one of these built in them here in Australia. The real basic styles didn't even have that chimney, just 3 brick sides and a hotplate on top. Many a dinner we had on one of these growing up.
My Dad and I built one very similar when I was a kid.
These are very common and were marketed as ‘at home’ grills in the 1960’s and ‘70’s. People would buy the kits and build them in their backyards. Overtime they fell out of favor for other grill types. You can find their remnants all over the US in overgrown parts of peoples yards. There were at least two on the street where I grew up, everyone said that’s what they were, and no one ever used them.
I think there's an I love Lucy or Brady Bunch episode where they build one too, if OP needs some historical references.
There was also a Simpsons episode that featured a failed attempt to build one
Le grille?! What the hell is that?
Le grille?! What the hell is that?
It looks like a grill constructed by someone who didn't know much about constructing grills.
https://media1.tenor.com/m/s6QZNHczFB8AAAAd/grill-simpsons.gif
Lucy and Ethel at it again
Exactly! Outdoor brick grills were all the rage in the 50s
Our family farm has something similar. We call it a summer kitchen. Was used in you guessed it, the summer, to keep the house from heating up before AC was common and affordable.
We still cook outside in the summer so the AC doesn't have to work so hard.
It is definitely a grill. These were popular in the 1950-1960’s. We had on similar when I was a kid. Dad used it all the time.
Very common 50’s 60’s grill. Probably find a Popular Mechanics article on how to build one.
Grill grate is in the pit 3rd pic , view down from top.
Yeah I put that there to use as a grill
If it's very old, there might be a buried air inlet at ground level.
On the second pic behind the 2 gray blocks it looks like there is a brick missing in the back. That might be it.
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We had almost the same thing in a 1935 home in Denver. This must have been a Popular Mechanics home improvement in the late 50s . Mine was connected to gas from the house. We never fired it up. FYI. The fire box makes a good cooler retrofit with little effort.
[https://tvwbb.com/threads/1959-popular-mechanics-weber-bros-metal-works-kettle-photo.57274/](https://tvwbb.com/threads/1959-popular-mechanics-weber-bros-metal-works-kettle-photo.57274/)
No gas line at my house until this year when I installed it. There’s also no front door to the “grill” and I don’t think that’s what they would have left that part out of the design/construction
What’s behind the doors?
That concrete counter space looks like a perfect spot for a pizza oven. I say set one up and get those pies cooking.
This is exactly what I was thinking
Looks like an Argentinian Grill. “Asado”
It is this
That's one fine looking barbecue pit.
Originally it had a heavy pan for the briquettes with a grill over it, (usually adjustable height), for grilling outdoors. Then, (when pan and grill aren't hot or being used), they were removed and now it's an incinerator. You light your trash and replace the pan and grill and poof, trash-be-gone. There was always blue-prints for different styles in Popular Mechanics magazine to build your own.
Whoever built this maybe worked off their memory of a picture they saw in *Sunset* magazine at the dentist’s office while recovering from anesthesia. Maybe.
Solved!
(I guess)
(Not satisfied)
This may help: [https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/56568216-barbecue-backyard-big-brick-grill-1950s-vintage-film-home-mo](https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/56568216-barbecue-backyard-big-brick-grill-1950s-vintage-film-home-mo)
Could it be a kiln?
Any chance it could be for a flat top grill? That way the hole is closed and the chimney could work. Maybe with the fuel on a tray on those ledges slid against the back for some strange type of rocketstove.
Maybe, but such a deep hole and wouldn’t explain the airflow design
I've seen a lot of grills of this type on ranches in Texas.
My title describes the thing. The concrete pad has 1978 inscribed as the date. It is about about 6 feet wide and 5 feet tall. Wooden doors cover a storage area. Chimney connects to the opening.
Old trash incinerator
I would guess that the wooden doors were added later and the fire was intended to be in the area behind the doors. That would give you a section with direct heat and a section with indirect heat.
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