EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published on Richland Source in 2014.
MANSFIELD — The big, brick complex that we familiarly refer to as the Tappan Stove factory, on Orange & Newman Streets, opened in 1889 as the Eclipse Stove Company, founded by the Tappan family who eventually put their name over the door in 1920.
Well-known and nationwide, the Tappan Mansfield plant excelled at innovation in the industry, leading the entire stove market again and again through the decades with cutting edge technology like gas-electric power, oven-door windows, and the microwave oven.
Tappan was bought out in 1992 by Electrolux, ending 100 years of Mansfield tradition.
As soon as the stove makers vacated the premises, the factory building was adopted as the Mansfield Industrial Center, where it was used in 1993 as the casting and staging area for extras used in the filming of Shawshank Redemption.
