Aerial view of the National Stove Works in Lorain (from the American Stove Company 1948 Annual Report) |
That’s Long Avenue running diagonally upward across the photo, beginning at the lower left hand corner. So that means that the road in front of the long, brick building shown in the vintage postcard below is Long Avenue.
You can see in both the aerial photo and the vintage postcard that at the north end of the building, a portion of it is set back slightly from Long Avenue to allow for a grassy area near the entrance at 12th Street.
Thus we know that the photo on the postcard below was taken from 12th Street looking west.
If only that thing could talk.
Speaking of that darling fire hydrant, it was manufactured by the Darling Valve & Manufacturing Company. It has DARLING on the top of its bonnet (to use the proper fire hydrant jargon) and the words “DARLING V & M CO” on its barrel.
The firehydrant.org website has two pages of vintage Darling fire hydrants that serve as a guide to establishing the age of one. The one in front of the former stove works shown above dates back from as early as 1917 (although it is impossible to know exactly how old it is).
Tomorrow: How much of the American Stove Company complex is still standing today?
3 comments:
Funny you used the term "by George." My Grandfather worked there and his name was George Rothmyer Nelson, he transferred to Lorain from Dangler Stove in Cleveland. Rae
Nice catch on the lonely hydrant. Reminds me of that stone marker at Gore Orphanage. Sometimes there isn't much left...
I even dug around the base of it to see if there was a year on it, until I remembered that a fire hydrant is a dog's best friend! Ugh!
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