Barstow Stove Company

Built In

1849

History

The Barstow Stove was owned by Amos Chafee Barstow who was active in political life including serving as mayor from 1852 - 1856. Barstow was involved in several businesses, including banking; he was president of the City Bank and helped establish the Mechanics Savings Bank. He was the first president of the Providence YMCA, and built the Providence Music Hall. The wood and coal stoves produced at his foundry starting in 1849 were immensely successful and won several national awards, as well as a medal of merit at the 1873 Vienna World’s Fair. Before the end of the century the company was the largest stove company in New England, employing 200 workers and offering 50 different kinds of stoves. The Barstow Stove Factory filled the entire 2 ½-acre plot. The three brick buildings remaining today are: the oldest, gable-roofed structure of 1849 with a clerestory monitor; east of this, a four-story structure from 1855; and a later structure at the corner of Point and Richmond streets. The company failed in 1930. Source - Dr. Dietrich Neumann, Brown for GoProvidence