Hi folks, I’m helping remodel a kitchen in a big old manor house built in 1904 in Massachusetts. The original Pratt & Walker Manufacturing (Boston) kitchen stove is in really nice shape and looks just like this one: Can anyone tell me anything about it beyond brand, and are you aware of any collectors value? Thanks! Brian
No idea on the model # huh? I think most of the W&P stoves were wood/coal fired from the little I've found on 'em. Did see this...just interesting, not helpful... http://www.ci.watertown.ma.us/DocumentCenter/View/642/Miles-Pratt?bidId=
I’m back in PA now. I won’t be able to get more info off the stove till I’m back up there in a couple weeks. I only found one photo online of that model though so it must be fairly rare.
That is the only illustration of this model I could find online. It’s not the actual stove. The second photo is of the actual stove. (I cropped it from the real estate company photos I downloaded a couple months ago. )
I am fairly sure yours says "50 Walker 50" on the front. Googled that, here is all I find: Walker 50 stove & oven by Walker & Pratt Manuf. Co. Boston in kitchen at Peacefield. Quincy, MA.
Awesome, thanks. I had not stumbled across that picture yet. This is exactly the same stove. Found this photo online too. It is labeled “60 Walker 60” on the front of this one:
Here’s an enlarged detail from the photo of this actual stove above: I’m not sure if it says “50 Walker 50” or “60 Walker 60”. I’ve seen pictures of both now I think though it’s diffi to tell based on internet photos. .
I inquired about this stove with one of the New England antique stove dealers. This is their response: This model is fairly common around new England. I just scrapped a 60 model because no one wanted it and it was in the way. Best to sell it locally but it is very hard to get one out of the fireplace. I have spent up to a day and a half to gently remove one. Walker made these from about 1860 right up into the early 1900's and also supplied them to other companies as well.
I’ve been talking to another antique stove repair shop near Boston, and he has restored several of these massive coal stoves. Unfortunately he agrees they don’t have any collectors value, because they were NOT a free standing stove but were “brick built” by a mason right into the brick wall, with firebrick internally. They’re very hard to remove. He sent me these photos of one they did disassemble and move, a two day process: But I found a nice video on Netflix about a Victorian feast prepared on one of those stoves called “Fanny’s Last Feast” that appeared about ten years ago on PBS. It includes some good background on that stove and its use. This shop repaired that stove for the video and the owner of the stove shop appeared in the video. They’re a very efficient stove that use an immense brick and cast iron mass and if still intact could heat all of the rear section of the house. More photos of a restored stove from the same shop:
I asked him about using this stove to burn wood instead of coal. His response: The grate for woodburning is very different that the factory coal grate in your stove. It allows for much more air control and ash build up for a longer, more efficient burn.
This thing essentially IS a masonry stove already. Or at least a hybrid, given that all the internals are masonry and the cast iron is only a facade to direct and control the heat. Now that I know what I know, I’m going to restore it to use. They’re supposed to be very efficient hot burning stoves that are good heaters (lots of masonry to hold heat long term plus cast iron to radiate heat while burning) as well as kitchen stoves. In the video I mentioned they got the upper ovens up to 800•!
Yep, and I know I can get the grates for firewood instead of coal from the fellow near Boston. One neat idea from the PBS video is that they took out the two center burners and put in a grill shaped like a cast iron griddle and grilled salmon steaks right there on top of the cook stove. I had never seen that before and thought it was an awesome option for steaks, burgers, etc.
