Kewanee Cottage Boiler Age Estimate

!940s would be my best guess.

Looking at the labels and the way the city and state are spelled out makes me think 1950's at the latest. In 1943 the Post Office introduced postal zones, and large cities were divided up into zones. So after that era when giving an address you would say something like "Syracuse 3, NY" rather than just "Syracuse, NY."

In 1963 the Post Office introduced zip codes and two-letter state abbreviations. They came into widespread use pretty quickly.

Speaking as a homeowner I am sure your home had a hand fed coal boiler with larger boiler tapping's and a great deal of thermal mass before this gas fired boiler was installed.

Are your radiators used as individual expansion tanks leaving an air charge in each radiator rather than using an open to air expansion tank in the top floor or the attic???

The large diameter piping above the boiler allows the hot water flow slowly and evenly to all the radiators in your home. There are a more than a handful of cast iron boilers with large pipe tapping's offered for home heating that could replace it.

I guess you are at the point where you could replace the boiler with the right one with the same size tapping's, new low water cut off switch and water feed valve and a single new clamp on aquastat to control the water temperature maintaining the heating systems simplicity and add that to the homes purchase cost. The installation of a new low water cut off switch in one of side tapping's of the new boiler will protect the new boiler and maintain plumbing code compliance.

It's a early 50's gas package ..

that replaced a coal boiler. either that or it didn't have central heat until that was installed in the 30's through 50's. that particular boiler was always gas. if it is a more modest house it might have been heated by a stove or a floor furnace originally.