BROOKLYN’S ALL GAS KITCHEN! (1914)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Just like today, gas stoves were once pushed onto Americans with a fury. Fueled by ads, lobbying, and massive amounts of money, the Brooklyn gas company told homemakers that gas was “essential” for “economy, comfort, cleanliness,” and guaranteeing an elimination of “half the kitchen drudgery.” Little did homemakers know, at the time, about the future controversy regarding gas as a health concern in the home. THE FUTURE – GAS! O, Brooklyn Union Gas Company! Thanks to you, my wife can be more efficient in the kitchen with the chemical of the future – GAS! Begun in 1825 as the the Brooklyn Gas Light Company, it became Brooklyn Union around 1895, and remained so until the end of the last century when a merger brought about KeySpan. Imagine! Installing, in 1914, a Gas Garbage Incinerator in your brownstone’s kitchen! That year, the Brooklyn Union Gas Company was pushing their gas appliances not only to heads of households, but they were also targeting “Progressive Business Men” to whom they claimed were attending the “special demonstration of gas industrial appliances at the gas industrial show rooms” at 108-10-12 Livingston Street, known as their “Gas Demonstration Building.” At their showrooms they announced, were “gas engine electric generator sets, automatic gas fuel steam boilers, sanitary bakers’ […]
