Range and a Heater? What gives?

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Stove/Heater combinations

Those were very common, maybe not Tappan so much, but many brands of gas and even some electrics had heaters on one side. At least one of our members has or had one. Some of the gas stoves had gas heaters and some had wood or coal. Monarch had many models of these combination units. Warm Morning was another brand as was Caloric. Some had the heater sort of hidden, like this one. Others had what looked like a two eye cookstove on one side of the range and the gas burners or electric surface units on the other. This one looks like it would have a gas space heater. If it used solid fuel, the door for adding fuel and the door for the ashes would be behind the door next to the oven.

That shadow box Tappan design was beautiful. They even made electric models with the shadow box control panel.
 
The seller might mean it has a warmer, not an actual room heater.

 

Older gas ranges did have heaters, though.  In the mid-80s I lived in a place with a TOL 1937 Wedgewood that had a room heater on the side with its own pilot light and control knob.  This was in addition to the trash burner, which commonly doubled as a room heater on old gas ranges.  The heater had never been used, so I lit the pilot for the first time and broke it in.
 
Almost Since The First Ranges Room/Water Heaters Could Be Fo

If you watch one of those older Prince Spaghetti commercials (the one with the woman screaming ANTHANEEEEE out the window), you'll see her range in the kitchen had side water heater as well. IIRC you can still order AGA ranges with side heaters as well.

These things as late as the 1970's or so served a purpose. Providing heat and or hot water to previously cold water flats or homes where indoor plumbing of that nature was pretty much still a stranger. We're speaking about everything from old housing stock to summer cabins or cottages.
 
Range/Heater combinations seemed to be big here in La Belle Province, but they were frequently wood/electric combinations. I remember the neighbours where we lived in Hudson (northwest of Montreal) still had an Entreprise wood/electric unit, probably from the late 50s and the parent's country house in the Eastern Townships had a really old Bélanger wood/electric unit from probably the late 40s.
 
Glenwood

I have one of these units in use, made by Glenwood, Taunton, MA. The gas heater on the side rated at 40,000 BTU. Works as an excellent heater for more than one room. I usually leave the flame on lowest setting, continuously, during the winter. Heater is vented to the chimney.

However, these types of stoves/heaters are outlawed in Massachusetts, with existing ones grandfathered. Only repair I've ever done is to replace a very inexpensive thermocouple (used to keep the standing gas pilot lit).
 
Here's a link to an older thread here on AW where I put up a bunch of posts on the 1939-40 Frigidaire electric ranges which included a model with a wood or coal fired room heater.  The reasons for this were simple, when people had a wood or coal fired cookstove in the kitchen it would have been fired continuously to provide heat in the kitchen and surrounding areas in the winter.  This would happen whether cooking was taking place or not.  When an electric, bottled gas or natural gas range took its place something ELSE would have been needed to provide space heating when there was no cooking going on.  If available space was tight and there was no central heat these combo units were just what was needed!  

 
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