DiMola Bros finds century-old coal oven in basement interior demolition job
I'm standing outside of the 1920s coal-burning oven we found on a basement demolition job in Brooklyn.
On these Brooklyn interior property jobs, you never know what might be cookin’.
This particular job began with a routine basement interior demolition and ended with a bakery. We found an old, coal-burning oven, buried in the wall.
My team and I went to a Brooklyn home to tear down the walls and ceiling of the basement. The owner had lived there for nine years and wanted to renovate it. When we cut open the first framed wall, facing the main entrance of the building, I noticed some white porcelain tiles coming through. The tiles were actually the foundation of the wall, holding up the front of the building. In the center of the wall, there was a small door, leading to the oven. The entire white-porcelain wall was 13 feet wide, and the oven was 18 feet deep and two feet high.
The owner said he had known that there had been a bakery in the same location in the 1920s, but he had never expected to find such a wonderful part of Brooklyn’s history. After we found it, the owner changed his plans. Now, he said, he wants to bake some serious bread.
Contact Information
DiMola Brothers – Main Office
1640 Summerfield Street
Ridgewood, NY 11385
Phone – (718) 326-6969
Web site: http://dimolabros.com
Outside of the oven
Inside of the oven
Trash Treasures of New York City 
[…] August 2010, we found 1936 buffalo nickels, a vintage Philip Morris cigarette can, and even a century-old coal oven, which, unfortunately, we couldn’t take with us. But I was able to grab enough photos of it to […]