Stove Works Part 2

Aerial view of the National Stove Works in Lorain
(from the American Stove Company 1948 Annual Report)

For many years, I’ve seen vintage postcards of the stove works and wondered just how the factory was situated on Long Avenue. It wasn’t until I saw the photo above of the Lorain factory from the 1948 Annual Report of the American Stove Company that I understood.

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.

And here’s today’s “now” view, taken about a week ago.

By George, there’s still a red hydrant in the same spot.

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?