My 84yr old mother still uses her grandmothers 1878 "Buckeye Forge" coal fired range.

It has a flat cooktop that is 5' long and 3' from front to back with 6 round holes with removable lids where you open it to shovel the coal in.

It has a high hutch top with sliding doors that are used as plate warmers. You store your dinner plates in there and the plates are nice & warm when you serve the meal.

Down below it has a vertical door about 6" wide. Inside that compartment is a 15gal water reservoir that makes hot water for the kitchen, and below the water reservoir there is a square shaft that you attach a crank to shake the grates and get the ashes out. It also has two huge ovens in the base.

The complete exterior of the range is a super heavy powder coat enamel finish, and it has a tubular brass safety rail around the edges of the cook top. Originally that rail was chromed but over the years nearly all the chrome has worn off.

In the early 60's when my uncle came home from the army he bought a brand new gas range for the kitchen. When he told them he was taking the coal stove out both my mother and grandmother pitched a fit. My uncle then agreed to leave the coal stove, but he installed the gas store beside it, thinking that in time they would realize the convenience of not fussing with coal and ashes, but such was not the case. Both stoves still stand side by side, and the coal stove is the one that mother uses.