A ~ B Stove Company Battle Creek - Deluxe Model - Circa 1936 - Claude H. Alexander Photographer

Stoves - Unknown Scene - Claude H. Alexander


The above stove I would describe as the "delux" model with a warming oven on the top right for dishes or finished dishes, sweet and or savory pies etc., along with what looks like storage space on the bottom with two compartments probably for pot storage. 

A more common apartment model that I remember from sharing an apartment up near Columbia U. close to four decades ago that still had such an antique in it, rent control and all that and the landlord's reluctance to spend on any upgrades on kitchen hardware (below). The apartment with three bedrooms and 1-1/2 baths if you counted the tiny maid's room off the kitchen was in the possession of the same family since the building was built in 1929, father to son to grandson. Great grandson no longer eligible or "grandfathered" into old Rent Control Laws per his date of birth.  Oven and stove needs a big box of matches nearby for use.

A~B Gas Stove - standard model - circa 1927

Perhaps this stove (first photo above) was in the the photographer Claude H. Alexander's Bleigh street house in Mayfair. I also see my grandmother's toaster on top of the warming oven, where you had to manually turn the bread for toasting toward the heating unit and what looks like a leather camera bag on a shelf near the window. 

The A~B Stove Company in Battle Creek was doing business in that name until 1945 when it merged with "Michigan-Detroit Stove Company" - now out of business.

One bit of interest to me in research of A~B was an A~B stove in 1916 that they introduced a stove model that was half gas and half coal. Saw one of these models in an antique store in Easton about 2003 in mint or restored condition with price to match.