Reip Bake Oven and Roaster, 1825 patent

A Reip metal wall oven still exists in a privately owned historic home, Hickory Ridge, in Howard County.  Elizabeth Ellicott Lea, daughter George Ellicott, had the Baltimore oven in her Sandy Spring home. Henry Reip obtained a patent for a 'Bake Oven and Roaster' in 1825, which he and his sons manufactured and sold for about forty years.  The oval oven, left, now at Hampton NHS (the birthplace of the wife of Gov. George Howard of Waverly) was made by the eldest son, Alfred Reip.

If you have an old home with a metal oven... keep it intact!  If you try to use it, do not make it too hot (not meant for pizza) or it will warp. Contact me with any questions.

Not all metal ovens are Rumford Roasters.  Count Rumford (Benjamin Thompson, 1753 - 1814) and his Roasters, picture left, are certainly the most well known, but other iron and tin ovens inserted into the side of the hearth were used in Europe and the United States such as the Reip Oven and Roaster of Maryland, patented in 1825. 

Rumford and Reip ovens both have a firebox directly under the oven where charcoal or mined coal were burned.  The ashes fell into the second, lower box.  Thus the heat could be maintained after the food was put on the shelves in the oven to bake.

Brick bake ovens are heated by burning wood for several hours, removing all the burned wood coals, then just using the heat from the bricks to bake the food.  The heat decreases since the burning wood is gone.  The oven, pictured below, takes me about 2 1/2 hours to get up to baking temperature.

Reip ovens in Howard County HERE
Reip ovens and Rumford Roasters HERE

©2017 Patricia Bixler Reber
Forgotten history of Ellicott City & Howard County MD