Ransom & Rathbone Stove-Works

Albany and Troy were once the stove capitals of the United States. The growth of iron works and the ability to transport goods by river, canal and, later, rail positioned the cities perfectly for the time when growing wealth in the expanding nation meant more and more homes heated and cooked with stoves rather than an inefficient open hearth. One study found that over the 130 year history of the stove industry here, there were 349 recorded manufacturers in the two cities. Ransom & Rathbone was one of the larger enterprises, which operated under a multitude of names from its establishment in 1830 as Hermance, Rathbone & Co. Eventually Ransom and Rathbone went their separate ways, creating two separate companies. Rathbone’s cupola furnace was one of the first in the country for making stove castings, and by 1883 it was melting 90 tons of iron a day, producing 75,000 stoves a year. It employed 1350 men at that point.

Among the other stove companies in Albany: McCoy & Quackenboss, Learned & Thacher (guess who the intersecting streets were named for), The Albany Co-Operative Stove Company, and the Temperance Furnace. The Albany Institute of History and Art occasionally shows its fine collection of Albany- and Troy-built stoves.

For more on the location of the Ransom works, click here.