Passive house cooling

Plenty of threads on this but one method I've never seen is the one my father built into his cabin intentionally or unintentionally, I never got the chance to ask.
He built a 24 x 30 log cabin on piers (sloped land) with a separate attic space and in the very center of the cabin is a massive brick fireplace of about 8 x 6 feet footprint on a footing below frost line (at least 4 feet in zone 4a). In the winter the idea is to heat the mass of brick to radiate into the room but in the summer it does a remarkably good job of removing heat from the air as well - so much so that I often start a small fire when I get there even in the summer to take the chill out of the stone (and air) the first night after the place has been closed up for a week.
When you come inside on a hot day it's noticeably cooler even in our humid climate.
Something I'm planning to work into our next house if I ever get that far.
This seems like something that would pair perfectly with a RMH installation.

Hi Ron,

I suspect your father was a wise old soul and was following the ancient wisdom of "centralized heating (or cooling) mass." This can be found in traditional large hearth (aka cooking hearth) fireplaces, masonry heaters (aka RMH) and other large mass traditional heating devices. Having centralized mass and mass partition walls all act like "thermal flywheels." As long as surface condensation does interfere with anything, these types of traditional designs do a marvelous job of heating, and cooling, just as you have reflected. Thanks for sharing that about your log cabin.

Regards,

j