For 3 years in the 70's, I lived in an efficiency apartment which used to be a one car garage. The stove, sink, and refrigerator/freezer looked like this. No oven. The table was an old desk. The bathroom was carved out of one corner, with an all metal 24 inch shower, and the floor would buckle and pop when you stepped in. But the rent was only $45/month, including utilities ($266 with inflation today).
...and a modern electric kettle...however Retro is HUGE with many people these days so that simply could be the explanation...
My grandmother grew up in the city. When canning time came, she said they loaded up a wagon with the cast iron kitchen stove and all the canning supplies and headed for the country. Her father would buy produce from farms nearby and her mother would do all the canning outdoors. It was just too hot in that city kitchen. Grandma said everybody would sleep in or under the wagon and the kids would rampage around the fields and woods while her mother canned and her dad kept the stove stoked. When all the canning was done, they'd load up the wagon and return to the hot city house. And I think *I* have it bad when I have to lug cans of food from the grocery store out to the car...…..
We had one of those in the dorm lounge when I was in college in the 1960's. Well, we did until some ding-dong tried to fry bacon on a piece of aluminum foil and almost burned the place down. That was the end of THAT.