Ranges...What was used most in your area..

[cornutt]

I know that when I worked for Pizza Hut in the late '70s, we had some stores with gas pizza ovens and some with electric. The electrics consistently made better pies and were easier to adapt to higher/lower demand. With the gas ovens, the toppings came out over-cooked when business was slow, and under-cooked when we were busy and the door was being opened a lot. The electrics hardly cared if the door was open or closed.

In northern Alabama, pre-WWII homes usually had gas service (many of them converted from coal between about 1920 and 1950). Most of the gas ranges I remember were Ropers. THe '50s and '60s burbs were build back when TVA was going to make electricity too cheap to meter, and were all-electric. I recall mostly GE and Frigidiaire ranges. Upper-end houses had GE or Thermador cooktop/wall oven combos, or Flairs.

 

[chaskelljr2]

I was born and raised in Washington, D. C., and here in the Nation's Capitol, Gas is the fuel that rules here. And growing up, the Ranges that were popular here were General Electric, Tappan, Hardwick, Caloric, Kenmore, and Magic Chef.

In the more expensive homes, then you would've found Wolf, Sub Zero, Merrit O'Keefe (if this is spelled correctly) Chambers and Viking.

In the three years back in the 1970's when I lived in Columbia, South Carolina, the brands listed above existed as well, but since Electric ruled down there, Frigidaire and Westinghouse were added to the mix.

I remembered seeing a couple of Monarchs down there as well.

--Charles--

 

[mayguy]

Growing up in the 70's-80's most home in small town Lake City MN, most of them were gas.. Few are electrics.

GE was a common brand then since there was only a GE dealer there.

I had both gas and electric, I think gas and electric bakes about the same. I much prefer to cook on a gas stove top since there's better control of the heat.

One thing I have noticed that the electric don't heat the kitchen as much as gas since the vent opening are smaller than the gas.

 

[zipdang]

The most common set-up amongst people I knew in my area was a gas cooktop paired with an electric wall oven or double-ovens. I knew very few people with free-standing ranges, but do remember a few people who had Jenn-Air and Modern Main drop-in downdraft electric ranges. When I finally had my first free-standing range in a college apartment I thought it seemed like such a great idea to have the stove and oven all in one! Lol

 

[davey7]

I'll third on Chicago being a Gas is King City. Lots of Crowns in fancy apartments in the city. Growing up we had an ancient Sears and then an almond Kenmore. Downstairs neighbor had a '55 Magic Chef she swore by which was torn out after they sold their unit. My first apartment had a nasty Brown range. I've moved up to O'Keefe & Merritt now (apparently a special order by a German hausfrau who cooked up a storm) from a circa 1960 kitchen renovation.

I think a recent thread talked about accuracy of old gas ranges - my O&M oven holds the temp right on and is just slightly high (which I suppose I could adjust) - the flame modulates up and down unlike my old place with a new Kenmore which cycled on and off to keep the oven temp going.

 

[ovrphil]

Electric

By the late 50's and early 60's most had electric stoves ....my buddy's mom and dad had an old farmhouse behind us and their stove was gas. I was always fascinated by the flame and instant on. Funny how a gas flame is a friendly sight to a kid, til you see a house blown to smitherees from a gas leak.

I love that expression: " NOWWWW you're cookin' with gas". (must have followed wood stoves)

 

[ovrphil]

Ugh, try again - SMITHEREENS. LOL!

 

[danemodsandy]

It Changes Sometimes

I remember when I was little, my native Atlanta was an electric-range town, except for in-town locations where few wanted to live back then.

The reason was that Atlanta Gas Light's infrastructure was spotty out in the burgeoning new suburbs. Some places had gas, some didn't. The 1949 Cape Cod I grew up in was an example: We moved into it in August of '58, and when we took possession, there was an enormous LP gas tank out back. Many houses in the area still had them.

Fortunately, the gas lines had just been completed out our way, so we were able to connect to "city gas" and jettison the LP tank; we never used LP. Our range was electric, like most in the area - the Loewy-designed 1948/49 TOL Frigidaire I've mentioned here before.

Now, the gas network runs pretty much everywhere in that city, and Atlanta is heavy on gas ranges. But I well remember when it wasn't.

 

[polkanut]

The previous set-up of our home was a Frigidaire 1st generation smoothtop electric range, an ancient electric water heater, and an oil furnace.  About 4yrs before we bought our home (1998) the previous owner had natural gas run into the house, and switched to a Lennox Pulse gas furnace, but kept the water heater and range.  We had a new natural gas Ruud water heater, and Magic Chef gas range installed.  The reason for the changes were a) the old electric heater couldn't keep up with the demands placed on it and, b) we both had gas stoves growing up.  The old water heater was out of hot water after just one load of laundry.  In 15yrs we've only run out of hot water twice, and that was my own fault.  It's not feasible to run the dishwasher, washing machine, and take a hot shower all at the same time. duh 

 

[retromania]

Re-reading this post:

Gas vs other forms of fuel. I kind of got the impression from my mother that the stove thing was sort of an evolutionary process and also a status thing here where I live. She said that to say you cook with electric was really something. Like I have mentioned in other posts, my mother grew up in a house that had a wood stove. Later on there was a gas stove in the corner, but the wood stove stayed and was still used. Mama said the gas stove was to be used for holiday over-flow. Then when they moved to their new house in the mid 1940's everything was Hotpoint electric.

 

[philcoford]

DC Suburbs

Our neighborhood was built in 61 and 62, electric cooking and Oil heat by boiler and had either Hotpoint cooktops, wall ovens, fridges and dishwashers, all in Pink or Turquoise, or Westinghouse kitchens in Stainless. We had Hotpoint, in Pink. No Gas in our area.

 

[retromania]

Westinghouse

I would LOVE to have seen a Westinghouse kitchen in stainless.

 

[hydralique]

I love to see anything in turquoise!

 

[retromania]

Me too!

 

[philcoford]

I had found a picture on line of the Westinghouse

Here is what the Westinghouse cook tops all looked like. The ovens had a matching knob to the stoves. One neighbor burned her house down while bringing in groceries as she had set a bag on or too near the stove and bumped the knob on, they did not have the push down to start safety feature yet.

 

[retromania]

Cooktop

That's really cool. Love the configuration of the burners and the funky knobs. Thanks for the pic.

 

[appnut]

Our subdivision was quite large and begun in late 1959 or 1960. By in large what I observed over the years was a majority had electric kitchens, but then I didn't go into every house either. I've looked at real estate listings of houses that were being sold after the original owner, again I've noticed all were electric. Many were GE. There was gas available throughout the subdivision because each house had a gas light in front of it. I know of at least one street that was built by one builder in 1962 or 1963 and it was all Frigidaire kitchens. New houses were being constructed from the beginning well into the mid to late 1970s. Our street was the 1961 Parade of Homes and had quite a myriad of offerings in kitchens displaying "the latest". There were a few houses I was in that had gas. I even saw my first pilotless ignition cooktop. An RCA Whirlpool. Brands on our street were Westinghouse, GE, Waste King Universal, O'Keefe & Merrit, RCA Whirlpool, and Frigidaire. Don't ever remember seeing Hotpoint or Caloric.

 

[appnut]

Here is the oven that was in the listing with that cooktop.

 

[retromania]

That's unusual. Never seen one quite like that. Neat.

 

[warmsecondrinse]

Gaslight Village?

Always had gas stoves: NYC, Newton, Mass., and cranberry country south of Boston where I grew up.

Our mid-60's suburban development was supposed to be called "Gaslight Village". The name was changed to "Brentwood" for reasons unknown. Coleman gas hot air furnace; Coleman (I think) gas hot water heater; Magic Chef gas stove with a 2nd, overhead oven; and a gas light out front. Originally the gas lights were not connected to the meter. Later they were connected and nearly everyone had them switched to electric. Everything else remained gas. To this day I much prefer gas for cooking. No one I know ever had any problems with it.

Anyone remember the "Warm is Wonderful" jingle?

 

[whirlykenmore78]

Where I grew up.

There was a good mixture of electric coil and gas burner cooktops. Of course in the 80's smoothtop and induction were not common. Nor were the large commercial "wannabe" stoves which I laugh at because they are nothing like a real commercial stove.
Heat and hot water were almost always gas.
Dryers were as much a mixed bag as the stoves.
The majority of the homes in the neighborhood had Hotpoint kitchen appliances and most people had KM or WP laundry. Our house had WP laundry, KA dishwasher, FD fridge, and a POS Tappan electric stove which prompted our change to a gas Jenn Air in 2000. I'd never go back to electric if it was not induction!
WK78

 

[appnut]

gas light out front

Where I grew up, the gas light out front and kept there functioning and not replaced with electric was part of what was called the deed restrictions--or covenants, or subdivision by-laws. If the homeowner didn't maintain the gaws light, they were fined. These light substituted for regular street lamps. Actually provide rather nice light at night and no long dark spots on streets like here where my house is now. My dad had a coworker and her husband come join us for dinner not too soon after we moved in he told the couple our house was the one with the gas light in front (typical of my dad's sense of humor that always kept us laughing).

(in fact, this lady's husband was the distributor where my dad got the Norge washer & dryer in December, 1964)

 

[NYCWriter]

Growing up ...

... in suburban Pittsburgh, it was generally the older homes (pre-1960) that had gas stoves. Almost all of the newer homes had electric.

And it was mostly either a standard-sized range (38 inches?) or a cooktop with two built-in ovens.

I remember going into the kitchen of a "rich" person's house in Sewickley and seeing my first "commercial" grade range: stainless steel, FOUR ovens, and a crazy number of burners. It was like seeing a four-headed cow.

 

[norgeway]

That WH oven..

Was the top of the line, Those cooktops were, to me, the best ever, there is a neighborhood in my home town full of those from the early 60s, many are still being used....RE Coleman heating, Coleman Blend Air was to my mind, the bEST heating system ever devised, it used 3 1/2 inch tubes and what they called Magic Blender registers, the gist of it was it drew room air in from the floor, blended it with the hot air from the furnace and discharged it, it really did work wonderfully, and air conditioning really worked great with it, they claimed that because the air was higher velocity, that it dehumidified better, I dont know if thats so, but our town is full of them, and the people that have them wont give them up for anything.

 

[washerboy]

Little Rock

Probably though the ages most everyone used gas to cook and heat with..starting in the 50's-60's it started to be a mix of electric or gas. I'd venture to say 99% of the homes here use gas to heat as well as gas hot water tanks. For some reason electric is expensive here..I'd hate to see a heating bill for an all electric home..ouch!!!! my house built in 1924 is all gas..even a gas floor furnace. Few homes explode from gas leaks...every once in a while there's a story on the news about something blowing up from a gas leak..but it's rare. With that said..about 7 years ago a home that was probably at least 1.5 miles from me exploded..as far away as I was from the site all the windows in my house rattled. The story was..an elderly lady got up in the middle of the night and tried to lite her gas wall heater in the the bathroom. Apparently it would'nt lite becasue she was truning the valve to the off position. Thinking she had turned the gas off..but actually opened the valve full open she when back to bed. Around 7:30 the next morning she tried again..she closed the valve..struck the match and poof...I drove by the site latter in the day and the home looked like someone had dumped out a box of wooden stick matches...homes on either side of her had the walls blown off..as I recall I think one of the neighbors homes was considered a total loss. Although gas explodions are few and far between...when they happen...they happen big. btw..the elderly lady was sent to a local burn unit..she lived for several days before passing away.

 

[davey7]

Gas Lights

In my neighborhood, gas lights out front are a sure sign that the building was a condo conversion by x_x realty in the 70's (or very early 80's). They were so popular in Chicago that many had to be ripped out (on condo conversions) because they hadn't been cleared by People's Gas or had been put in after a moratorium on them. You'd sometimes see slumlords putting them out front of apartment in that same era or the 60's to make their building seem "cool".

One building in my block retrofitted their gas lights with custom made copper inserts for electric light inside the 70's gas fixtures. You'd smell gas as you walked by and some of the mantles were just shot.

 

[sudsmaster]

When I grew up in SF, most of the rental flats and apartments would have Wedgewood gas ranges. Electric was very uncommon, perhaps because most of the buildings were older and couldn't handle the 220 required. Wedgewood was probably more common that O'Keefe and Merritt and other gas range brands because the Wedgewood factory was in the Bay Area (Union City or Newark, I think).

I still really like Wedgewood gas ranges, but it's can be hard to find one in good condition. And unfortunately, in the 60's or 70's, both kitchens here were remodeled for built-ins, so a range simply wouldn't fit without major remodeling again.

I did sneak an electric range into the workshop where it functions as a powder coating oven.

 

[passatdoc]

Depends on the age of the housing and any remodeling activities.

 

The first kitchen I can remember was a brand new 1958 tract home in San Diego. Built in cooktop and built in wall ovens were GE and gas-powered. I would assume the water heater was gas since the kitchen had gas and evidently no 220V. Same assumption for water heater.

 

When I was five we moved to a more affluent part of town where homes were mainly built custom in the 1930s. When we moved in, the kitchen had a big white gas range (don't remember brand) and I'd never seen a free-standing range before. My parents remodeled within a few months of moving in, and added:

 

1. Electric coil cooktop, I think Tappan or Frigidaire. 
2. Double electric wall ovens: Frigidaire

3. Garbage disposal

4. Kitchen Aid dishwasher (Superba, with a wood panel)

 

However, the home obviously had gas pipes and the dryer from the earlier house came with us to the new house, so it must have been gas and there must have been a gas hook up in the laundry room, which used a sink as the washer exhaust (home built in the era of wringer washers). Water heater in basement was gas. Original furnace was an oil burner. Eventually, that burner broke and my parents replaced it with a natural gas furnace.  

 

[fan-of-fans]

Most homes in my area built after the 1950s had electric. During the 70s (which seems to be when the big construction boom happened), GE appliances seemed to be the biggest ones used by builders. I have seen a couple Frigidaires from the 70s, but by and large GE was big. During the 80s and 90s that shifted to GE and Kenmore, with electric still being most popular. Jenn-Aire downdrafts were seen in a few high end homes.

 

[lordkenmore]

I don't have exact numbers for my area. But I can say this: electric seems to dominate. Every place I've lived has been electric. In some cases, gas service did not exist. But even the place I lived 10 years ago or so, which had gas heat and hot water, used electric for the stove and dryer.

At the same time, gas must be used by someone--I see the cooktops and ranges at Home Depot.

Given that electric seems so dominant, I actually got rid of some cookware. It was less than ideal for electric (e.g., too small for even a small burner), and I figured the chances of ever having gas aren't good enough to make it worth hanging onto.