Antique Round Oak wood stove model D18


Antique Round Oak wood stove model D18

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Antique Round Oak wood stove model D18:
$100.00


This is an antique wood stove in great shape that has been in my basement for 20 years and I used it only a few times as I could not get the heat upstairs well, so it has been a decoration for some time but now I would like to use the area for a workshop. I bought it from an antique store sandblasted and primed I just sprayed stove black on it. It is in excellent shape with all the parts intact.
Some history I found about the company,

The Round Oak Stove Company was founded in Dowagiac, Michigan in 1871 by P.D. Beckwith (Philo D. Beckwith). Beckwith cast his first stove around 1867 to heat his struggling foundry and shortly after, the Michigan Central Railroad ordered the heaters for its depots between Detroit and Chicago . By 1871, Beckwith was mainly producing heating stoves, and thus founded the company.

The origin of the name Round Oak is unknown. The first theory is that Beckwith stoves were round and could hold a section of whole round oak tree in the firepot . The second theorizes that he named it after a foundry of the same name in England.

Round Oak was considered the finest heating stove money could buy because of the quality of its durable heating stove and by the late 1890s there were many “oak” imitators on the market. The company expanded rapidly and at its height in the 1910s, employed 1200 of the 5000 residents in Dowagiac, Michigan . Round Oak’s influence on Dowagiac went far beyond its factory grounds. The company sponsored a semi-professional baseball team and the Round Oak Band. Dances were held in Round Oak Hall.

P.D. Beckwith died in January 1889, leaving the management of the firm to his son-in-law, Fred E. Lee. In 1892 in memory of PD Beckwith, his daughter Kate and son-in-law, Fred Lee built the Beckwith Memorial Theatre in the downtown at Front and Beeson streets. Regarded as one of the finest theatres between New York and Chicago, it hosted such well-known names as William S. Hart, Roland Reed, Robert Mantell and Otis Skinner.The original Beckwith building also contained space used for a bank, city hall and Round Oak Company offices. The busts that decorated the building\'s exterior included Beethoven , Chopin , Liszt , Emerson, Whitman, Shakespeare , Sarah Bernhardt and Susan B. Anthony . When the building was razed in 1966, the busts were salvaged. Eight are today used in columns standing at the entrance to the Lyons Building at Southwestern Michigan College in Dowagiac.

After Beckwith’s death, the official company name was changed to The Estate of P.D. Beckwith Incorporated. Most stoves produced after 1890 carry the mark of “Estate of P.D. Beckwith” along with “Round Oak”, which has confused novice collectors as to the original owner of Round Oak stoves – many believing they have purchased a stove actually used by Beckwith himself. The company also added new products, like furnaces and cooking stoves, and introduced a popular mascot around 1900 – Chief Doe-Wah-Jack .

Antique Round Oak wood stove model D18:
$100.00

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