The scattered belongings left in the house include the expected – remnant building supplies, old books, a few lights, a mattress, broken electronics…and a half ton commercial stove – a surprise encounter in the basement kitchen. As it happened, the owners mom ran a restaurant in the neighborhood years ago and the stove was brought back when it closed. Even minimally maintained, it’s a culinary workhorse. It may have eBay value or resale to a restaurant equipment dealer, at least for parts – if we can figure how to get it out. When it was brought in thirty years ago, the stoop was gone (the original was wood, like the facade), and it squeezed through the front without having to angle through the current vestibule. The other articles left within the house read like a list of yard sale leftovers, though some of the lot hopes to get a closer look.
Squib History: The Garland Stove was introduced in Detroit, back in 1860‘s Civil War era by brothers Jeremiah and James Dwyer. They started out with potbellied models for heating, and soon added cooking stoves. The industry was helped along by the shipping industry on the Great Lakes and Iron ore from upper Michigan, and made Detroit the “Potbelly Stove Capital”. And the Garland Stove became a symbol of Detroit’s manufacturing strength in the late nineteenth century – building the road for the automobile industry that would follow.
