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Masonic Street Fire Station history Allison Lockwood Daily Hamphsire GazetteFire station, declared inadequate - in 1892 "Call For A New Engine House" read a headline in the " ' The Daily Hampshire Gazette, building has been pronounced unsafe for the changes pro- posed" The date was March 11, Allison 1892. Lockwood Designed in 1869 by Nor- thampton's leading 19th-century architect, William Fenno Pratt, and built in 1872 for $12,000, the been put in modern shape," town's fire station was already reported the Gazette, "with auto- too small - only two decades matic stable doors opening at later = to house the fire-fighting the strike of the alarm, sanitary apparatus of 1892; two hose horse stalls, a sliding pole for and descending to the fire wagons at a hook and ladder , wagons, the big new Silsby steamer, Pratt night, and improved rooms as had provided. three bays for fire this year,, 1893, the fireinen first wagons, and now four were began sleeping in the engine ll needed-- Concern over the Masonic house. The horses are now a kept in , the house headed. Street headquarters of Nor- : toward the-wagons they are thampton's fire' department is expected to draw. These changes . thus no new thing. For more will put the building in first.-class than a century, problems have shape for. several years to continued to surface periodically come." and become public issues - Certain features of this 1892-93 particularly around election time. renovation are still in use or at Rather than build a new fire least to be seen even today. The station in 1892, one designed to brass "sliding pole," no longer cope with Northampton's bur- geoning 19th-century growth and used, As still in place as are three second-floor "sleeping development, the city chose in- apartments" created to provide stead to remodel the existing double rooms with "each fireman structure - a practice it would occupying a bed by himself," The -follow throughout the ensuing large adjoining hall, once used century. The old station was as a meeting room for volunteer periodically remodeled, enlarged, companies, is now a day room. repaired,' patched, re-roofed, A ground-floor room of the plastered, painted, reinforced, re- station, functioning today as a habilitated and "modernized" makeshift. office, was originally with the result we see today: an the town "lock-up." Northamp- outmoded structure inadequate ton's building boom of the 1870s to house modern fire apparatus, had, according to the minutes of hazardous to the health and a Town Meeting in 1871, safety of the firefighters, and a "brought together from abroad tempting morsel eyed by eager many mechanics and day labor- would-be wreckers. ers, some of whom are inclined Architect Pratt's old engine f t to be troublesome at times." In ecial granite windowsill of the s o house is an integral par Northampton's cherished 19th- p this one time cooler (all other century streetscape, a living symbol of the city's past and a sills are brownstone) can be seen the holes that once held .lime example of abuse of an historic building. bars. Still affixed to the outside rear the space problem In 1892 wall of the station are iron rings , was solved by building a new e standing th for tying up horses, and in the machine shop is still the old e on hose tower, today at the left rear of the brick forge for horseshoes. "I " station. By lopping off the top of Pratt's original hose tower at the said hate to see them go, Fireman Philip Sherdon when building's left front, and then cutting out a large doorway, the the horses were phased out in 1916. "I hope whoever gets them renovators of the 1890s created a will use them good," added fourth bay to house the new Driver John Halpin. The horses steamer. Other improvements went to the farm in Plainfield of were also included. house has just i h " Alexander McCallum. - For - several decades before ne e eng T Y wlw- COURTESY FORBES LIBRARY This photograph of the Northampton Fire Department and its Masonic Street headquarters, taken in 1924, is in the archives of the Forbes Library. Standing at left is Fire Chief John Marlow. World War II, a prominent fea-• ture of Northampton life was the house," advised the Gazette, "and Keeper Day will run to the "badly in need of repairs." Blue- prints, specifications and archi- fire bell, still hanging up in the l f i Edwards Church (then a brick designed by Pratt in buildin tectural drawings for a new combined fire, and police station ires gna hose tower, used to s and to sound out their location, g 1871 and demolished in 1957) a . to be built with the aid of federal Cast in 1883 by Meneely and Co. few steps away and repeat the i the bell i PWA funds was proposed. A wrangle over the site killed this at West Troy, N.Y., the bell cost It bears a Latin motto: $683 ng ng number after r one minute." The Gazette as- endeavor, . "Igne furente, populum concla- l I ' sured readers, "This arrange- ment will not take over one In 1964, the station was so dilapidated that a firefighter was a arm (When fire.rages, mo. the people). Older Northamptoni- minute longer than the usual knocked unconscious when a lo- ans also remember this bell's w when a f direct alarm." Reports concerning deteriora- by-2-foot section of a second-floor 'ceiling landed on him. Fire Chief e other use as a cur single stroke at 9:30 p.m. signi- tion of the fire station reached a Charles Martin's plea for anew fied it was time for all young- crescendo in 1927 when rotten station went unanswered, but sters to head for home. The bell roof timbers, falling bricks, sag- repairs were made, has not rung since 1947 when it ging floors, and walls "bulged- "Everyone recognizes the need " was perceived to be directing d l out" 3 to. 5 inches were discov- and a Repairs were made ered declared for a new station, Chief John Murray in 1977, "but es an onlookers aboard bicyc where they imped- cars to fires , . small coop - still to be seen - the city has been unwilling to " , ed the work of the firefighter. was added to the rear of the station to make needed space for put up any money for it. Chief J. Paul Driscoll's request While the present hose tower to use) was f a new hook and ladder truck. in 1979 was tabled, "It will be his e (no longer. sa under construction in 1892.93, By 1935 the station was again last , such request," said the and before the big new bell was , installed (the original 1870s bell hangs in front of the Florence sub-station), the firefighters had to improvise their general alarm. "The new indicator and alarm gong will ring in the engine Gazette of Driscoll's appeal in March of 1989, "because he retires in April," In 1991, Mayor David B. Mu- sante Jr. appointed a site com- mittee as the first step toward building a new station, with the warning, "There's no money, and we probably won't be getting a fire station for years." . The history of Northampton's fire department began in 1837 when a volunteer company was formed to man two so-called "double-deckers," ' clumsy little tubs on wheels, called the "Whale".and the "Damper.`One "Damper" member was archi- tect-builder Isaac Damon. , By 1857, the volunteer depart- ment boasted a Board of Engi- neers, the "Torrent" Engine Company, the "Deluge" Engine Company, a Sack and Bucket Brigade, and a four-man hook and ladder .unit. Contests deter- mined that the "Deluge" always raised a higher stream of water than its rival. The "Deluge" was housed in an old building at the corner of Main and Canal (later State) streets, site of the present Ed- wards Church. When its head- quarters burned down in 1868, the "Deluge" firemen pressed for a new building. "We have been considerably discommod- ed," they complained. "It is absolutely necessary that some provision be made for this need of the Fire Department" Two years later, the "Deluge" firefighters were still crowded into makeshift headquarters in the old town hall that stood near the present-day courthouse site. It is "indispensably necessary," they were still insisting, "that a new building with a hose tower be erected a suitable building in the center of town for the Fire Extinguishing Apparatus." "Plus ca change," as the French say, 'Vest la meme chose.' The more things change, the more they remain the same. Allison Lockwood writes on historical subjects for the Ga- zette. 1 . e .