The “crown jewel” of the interior furnishings, in Jim’s opinion, was the 1902 cast iron wood-burning stove that is showcased in the 1900s-era kitchen. The wood-burning stove came from Rangeley, Maine, where it had been stored in the basement of the grandmother of the Nelson’s son-in-law. He had been asked to take it to the dump, but the couple’s daughter recognized that it could be valuable to her parents’ project.
RMR Stove Restoration Company, a restorer of vintage gas stoves, advised to have the stove disassembled and shipped to a sandblaster in San Diego. RMR further advised not to paint the reassembled stove, but rather to apply black stove polish within a day of the sandblast cleaning to avoid rusting in our salt air environment. The bright work was to be replaced not with chrome but with nickel. “We followed RMR’s instructions to the letter and converted a pile of rubble into our crown jewel,” Jim reported.
The 1900s water pump came from Kanab, Utah, where it had been restored.
Other artifacts were found closer to home at the Collectors Antique Mart in Oceanside — the “possum belly” hutch, named for the semi-circular four bin drawer, the kerosene lamp, the ice box and the manual washing machine that still wears a bit of its original blue buttermilk paint.
The Mart also supplied the small, glass Daisy butter churn and many turn-of-the-century kitchen implements. The taller wooden butter churn was donated after one of the Society’s Antiques & Collectibles Sales (precursers to our Holiday Boutiques).