Who wants a 1950s GM Frigidaire range?

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volvoguy87

volvoguy87

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Some distant friends bought a house in Northern Virginia recently and are gutting the kitchen. Sadly, the cabinets are already gone. They would like someone to take the range who will appreciate it and not scrap it. I have not personally seen it, so I am writing this based on the information they told me and the pictures they sent.

It may be circa 1951 and it is 40" wide. The model is #RM-10 5420286.

There is a pull-out storage drawer on the left and an oven on the right. There are 3 elements and 1 deep well. The porcelain is in very good condition, but there is one paint spot that the owners are not messing with for fear of accidentally damaging the porcelain. Everything works and the range was connected and in use until this week. There is no clock, no timer, and no broiler drawer. The range is complete.

The asking price is FREE. Please take it.
Dave

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Oh you guys

are killing me. Another stove that is PERFECT for my house but to far away to pick up.

!!!!!!AAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
 
How to get it!

If you would like this range or would like more information, pictures, etc. please reply in this thread or to my e-mail. The owner and his partner would like the range to be appreciated, not scrapped, so let's see what can be worked out!

Thanks,
Dave
 
I love the simplicity of these early GM ranges - not much flash or bells and whistles - ALMOST like a WO-65! ;-)

Clean lines, beautiful crisp-looking controls, and a TON of white porcelain. Looks like the provisions for the lamp are plugged by chrome inserts.

Ben
 
Ok Volvoguy

I will look into the cost.

I am not certain anyone here really understands the scope of the project I took on when I bought my house from the Historical Trust a couple of years ago.

Maybe I should start a new thread but to put it short I took on a house built by a man who served in the war with our first President.

I have worked my A$$ off to put it back to the earliest time period of the nation and want to....

install the earliest 20th century appliances that would have been in the house

This stove looks like a match...
 
Will please

don't knock me out of this stove....

and let me see if I can get this beauty to Georgia.

By the way, how is your latest project coming?

Greg
 
This range is just beautiful. Hopefully someone will be able to use and appreciate it.
 
That's fine Greg, you did see it first and I was hoping for a later 50's electric (either conventional or stovetop/wall oven). I have a gas late 50s Kenmore that I don't trust. I found out it was not the original one from the home (their used to be a stove top/wall oven arrangement). I just didn't put two and two together. I actually was going to see if someone on here wanted it. It may be fine, but I know I can check/rewire an electric if needed, I don't have a clue how to check/repair gas. Besides, pilot lights scare me (my cousin and his wife almost died from the pilot going out on a mid 60's stove one in their house). I think the Kenmore would do better in another home.

Ironically though there is one just like the Frigidare (in far worse shape) in the old junk yard near where I grew up. It has been closed for 30 years, but is fun to walk around and see what is still there. I actually salvaged the name plate from it and hung it on my wall. One day I want to go back and save the "F" wings, but I couldn't get them off the day I was there. I used the laptop camera, so for the picture is reversed, go figure.

Also, for anyone interested in wall ovens, there is a mint early 50's GE at the local Restore for $10. Again, I want a later one, with a window in the door if possible.

I'm currently doing odds and ends to the Zenith television console. I ordered new handles for the doors (I found exact reproductions!) and plan on ordering a new idler wheel/needle for the cobramatic shortly. I need to order all the caps for the Philco console (then the Zenith) and figure out how to replace them. I just need the cash. (fun fun)

Good luck with the stove, Greg!

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Oldhouseman

I didn't know you bought your house from the Trust. Those are often a BOATLOAD of hard work. Lots of blood, sweat, and tears, but hopefully well worth it. My recent projects have been hampered by a minor problem, I need a job!

I have very poor eyesight. I don't drive at night anymore and that REALLY limits where I can live and work. I am trying to find a job in historic preservation in a city with good public transit (meaning better than just buses) where I can live and work without having to rely on a car for getting to work. Boston is my #1 choice, but I haven't had any luck finding a job there yet.

I lived in Savannah, GA for 3 years and loved it, even though their public transit was a pathetic waste of time. The company where I was working ceased to exist and I couldn't find another job. The Savannah College of Art & Design graduates so many historic preservation majors who are willing to work for peanuts and competition for jobs is so stiff that I couldn't find a job that I could live on. I loved Savannah because I only had to take out the car twice a week, give or take. I restore antique bicycles and I rode one to work most of the time. I also walked a lot. It was a very nice existence and I hope to get back to an urban environment as soon as I can find a job. Right now I am living with my folks because I have no place else to go. Here in the outer suburbs of DC, as soon as the sun sets, I'm a prisoner in my own house every night.

Sorry to blab on so much about me, I'm getting my own thread off topic,
Dave
 
For Greg:

Anyone who doesn't understand what Greg is doing with his house should know:

It's like what they did at Colonial Williamsburg, only with a single house and without any Rockefeller donations helping things along.

Right, Greg?
 
Yes Sandy

Thank you for making that point clear. The good folks at Williamsburg have been good to offer advise and it has been two and a half years of very hard work.

I get letters from the Trust on a regular basis telling me what they do and don't like about my work on the place. Most of what they don't like is that I don't have the money to make the place picture perfect overnight.

Well, I just tell them "tickle my tits 'till tuesday, it getting done as best as it can". That sent the Trust guys packing away. They are due back for another inspection soon.

Dave, we both choose a field because of our personal interests but it does not pay a living wage. Even as an Archivist with the Secretary of State's office I still have to take on outside projects and jobs to make it all work. I have the house and saving it may be my final contribution in the field. I have plenty of people knocking on the door every Saturday wanting a tour and I honestly enjoy seeing the reactions. That wide eyed "WOW" when they step inside and have a look around. Makes it all worth it.

Savannah, like Charleston, is beautiful but a difficult place to live unless you have the bucks it takes to afford it. I used to sell antiques to Jim Williams some years ago. A former Supervisor sat on the grand jury when he was put on trial for murder (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil).

Sorry to hear about your eyesight Dave. If the Stove is something you can use then go for it. We can certainly save it between us. Either way it gets a good home.

Ralph, Sandy and others here have been a great source of inspiration and offered great advise on the kitchen and laundry areas. I hope they and others will visit sometime, especially when I get some vintage appliances in place.
 
Hey Greg,

I'm so happy for you. You really deserve the stove, it will look very cool in your house (the pictures are amazing that you've shown in the past). I hope one day I can see this magnificent house in person.

Dave,
if things fall through, you'd better call me (or our friend Wesley will get a phone call!) ;)
 
Here's What Greg Contends With:

I'm going to start with a 1926 photo of the George Wythe House in Colonial Williamsburg. The Wythe House is thought to date from the mid-1750s. When the first restoration efforts began at Williamsburg, the house had been through many changes of ownership, additions and changes to the house itself, and lots and lots of what is genteelly referred to as "deferred maintenance". You can see the inappropriate front porch that had been added, the window above the front door that had been converted to a doorway for access to the balcony above the porch, the overgrowth and the general disrepair.

8-5-2008-13-41-12--danemodsandy.jpg
 
Wythe House Today:

Here's the Wythe House as it looks after seventy years of restoration and conservation. The tawdry "improvements" of yesteryear have been removed, including closure of the doorway that was above the entrance door. Disrepair and overgrowth have been addressed. But -

All of it was done to historical standards. Williamsburg's standard is "ordinary repair" of deteriorated and missing elements with the closest possible match to original materials, not replacement with something similar. Also, no Hollywood fakery is permitted to make anything look older than it is. You can see this ethic at work where the doorway above the entrance door was removed, and a window put back in. Colonial Williamsburg made new bricks to match the old - using the identical local clay found in the originals, fired in reconstructed wood-fired brick kilns - and laid them exactly as the originals had been. But nothing was done in an attempt to artificially "age" the new/old bricks; you can still tell the difference between original and restored brickwork, seventy years on.

The Wythe House has many modern-day features like electricity and climate control, to help conserve the structure, but all new elements had to be concealed, or had to look appropriate. The roof is an example. The cedar shakes used originally were out of the question, for fire safety reasons (the history of Williamsburg is rife with fires started when sparks from one house's chimney set the roof of an adjacent house ablaze). So, a composition shingle closely resembling cedar shakes was chosen. That's an exception to the "no fakes" rule, but it's necessary for safety.

So, that's what Greg's doing. He has to restore using old materials and methods wherever practicable, without resort to fakery whenever possible. Vinyl siding, vinyl replacement windows, new hardware, and steel doors are not an option for him. He has to use a lot of judgement where updates are concerned.

And he has to do it all on the same kind of budget most of us have. The Wythe House, like most of the original restoration at Williamsburg, was restored with funding from John D. Rockefeller. Greg gets to do it one paycheck at a time.

Keep up the good work, Greg! In a way, your efforts mean more than the professional ones at Williamsburg, because the results are harder-won.

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Thanks Sandy

You have a great way of explaining matters that are very clear. Here is a picture of the dinning room as it was underway almost 2 years ago. Several contractors told me the plaster had to be removed because it had so much damage from age and a leaking roof. We decided to repair it on our own. Besides we didn't have the 20 thousand quoted us to redo the interior walls. We managed to save the original plaster in every room so far. I'll add an after shot after I post this

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Here is the same room now

yes, I still have to do the floors, that's next years project because they have to be hand sanded, no machines because they will tear up the dips and ridges in the floor. I was lucky to find the inventories for the house in various estate records so I am putting back the types of furnishings that would have been there originally (some of the original furniture is in the Conn. Historical Society).

I am very grateful for the help and advise I have received from members here. Will, how is the television coming along?

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Will, never mind

you answered that question earlier...

Here is another project off the list, the front piazza BEFORE

It does not show well in the photograph but most of the wood in that 1848 woodwork was rotted. Parts would fall oaway when touched. We had to save as much of the original wood as possible (the front piazza and two flanking rooms were added in 1848, the only really major change done to the place)

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Here is a during

pic, it took five months to do all the repairs. Note the curve on the bottom of the screen door. When it was put up sometime mid 20th century they cut the bottom to accomodate the centuries of wear on the threshold.

8-5-2008-15-44-36--oldhouseman.jpg
 
And finally

a finished front! You bet there was a celebration when this part was done! We sat in the hall and had sandwiches and tea picnic style because there still was no water or electricity in the house at that point. And we found a brick walkway when we cleaned up the front yard. Look at the bottom of the screen door, ..lots of footsteps there since 1797!

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Greg:

Great job! Very few people appreciate the hands-on hard work that has to go into stuff like that. They will say, "Oh, how nice - you painted the place!" or something similar.

Especially great that you found the original walk under the yard debris - what a great bonus.

Keep me posted on your efforts - I'm always on the lookout for houses to write up for magazines.
 

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