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Detroit — For 25 years, Jan Kaulins has been snapping photographs of Detroit history.
Among the landmarks, he says, is "World's Largest Stove," a 15-ton oak stove at the Michigan State Fairgrounds near Woodward and Eight Mile.
"It's gone through so many evolutions, so many changes in the city and still survived all those years," said Kaulins, who sells prints of the stove and other Detroit landmarks on his website. "It's multigenerational. Objects like that help bind history."
But the fate of the iconic stove is now unclear after it was apparently struck by lightning and caught fire in a Saturday storm.
Detroit fire officials were dispatched to the grounds around 8 p.m., said Michael Herron, a Detroit Fire Department senior chief.
Herron said reports indicate the fire occurred through "natural causes."
"It was just about the time when the storm went through," he said.
"(Lightning) could have hit and smoldered for a long time before anyone even noticed it."
The replicated Garland model kitchen range was built in 1893 by the Michigan Stove Co. for the World's Fair in Chicago. Painted to look like metal, the 20-foot-high stove stood on a platform at the exposition over an exhibit of regular stoves.
Formerly located on Belle Isle, the stove is 25 feet high and 30 feet long. It was restored and moved to its current location in 1998.
The State Fair shut down in 2009 due to state funding cuts.
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110815/METRO01/108150330/Fire-strikes-‘World’s-Largest-Stove’-at-State-Fairgrounds#ixzz1VB2W1XzO
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Detroit — For 25 years, Jan Kaulins has been snapping photographs of Detroit history.
Among the landmarks, he says, is "World's Largest Stove," a 15-ton oak stove at the Michigan State Fairgrounds near Woodward and Eight Mile.
"It's gone through so many evolutions, so many changes in the city and still survived all those years," said Kaulins, who sells prints of the stove and other Detroit landmarks on his website. "It's multigenerational. Objects like that help bind history."
But the fate of the iconic stove is now unclear after it was apparently struck by lightning and caught fire in a Saturday storm.
Detroit fire officials were dispatched to the grounds around 8 p.m., said Michael Herron, a Detroit Fire Department senior chief.
Herron said reports indicate the fire occurred through "natural causes."
"It was just about the time when the storm went through," he said.
"(Lightning) could have hit and smoldered for a long time before anyone even noticed it."
The replicated Garland model kitchen range was built in 1893 by the Michigan Stove Co. for the World's Fair in Chicago. Painted to look like metal, the 20-foot-high stove stood on a platform at the exposition over an exhibit of regular stoves.
Formerly located on Belle Isle, the stove is 25 feet high and 30 feet long. It was restored and moved to its current location in 1998.
The State Fair shut down in 2009 due to state funding cuts.
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110815/METRO01/108150330/Fire-strikes-‘World’s-Largest-Stove’-at-State-Fairgrounds#ixzz1VB2W1XzO
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