MEANDERING
WITH JOHN CORCORAN
THE FIRST ELECTRIC FIRE ALARM SOUNDED
By ROY NOBLE (courtesy of "GATEWAY NEWS")
Although Gloucester City's first fire company was organized in 1875, it was not the first one to be organized in this area. Never-the-less the City can be proud of the fact it was in Gloucester Town that the first Company in this section of New Jersey g
ot started.
March 3, 1799, a group of men met in Huggs Tavern, on Gloucester Point, to talk over the need of an organized fire company in this area. The following week subscriptions were taken to encourage the group to establish the company in Woodbury.
Two schools in Woodbury at that time subscribed $40 each and donated a number of fire buckets. On July 8, 1799, sufficient funds had been collected to purchase a hand-Pumper on wheels. With such backing, the Friendship Fire Company of Woodbury was organized and that first hand-Pumper is today a highly prized relic of their possession.
In 1879, Gloucester City's first firehouse was built. It was constructed of wood, on the lot at the rear of the City Hall, near the site of the present house of Number 1 Company on Bergen Street.
There was considerable talk among many prominent businessmen of the town of petitioning Council to place an alarm fire bell in the cupola of the firehouse. It appears several fires took place without the knowledge of some of the firemen, due to lack of an alarm bell.
City Council went "all out" on the installation of a fire-alarm system. A huge bell that could be heard in all sections of the town and sounded by electricity was purchased for mounting in the City Hall tower.
According to newspaper reports, everyone was well pleased with the purchase. One account read: "The bell for the fire alarm has arrived and is pronounced as a "daisy" by the firemen”,
Installation of the bell was an outstanding event into he town accompanied by appropriate celebration. From the news account of christening ceremonies, it was so noted that the bell was a female!
September 8, 1891: the fire alarm was successfully placed in position in the tower of the City Hall, noon yesterday. In the afternoon, the ceremony of christening the bell was performed by Martin Coyle, who broke the bottle of champagne on it and named it Mary.
While all of this was taking place workmen from the Gamewell Fire Alarm System were stringing wires about the town from the City Hall to alarm boxes in various sections of the town.
At 9 o'clock on the evening of November 16, 1891, there was great excitement in town as the fire alarm sounded for the first time for a fire on Ridgeway St. This fire was in the house of Richard Batezel and Thomas Popland. Several streams of water soon brought the fire under control. The damage amounted to $1000.
The pictures are of the Monmouth Street School which was destroyed by fire in March 1960. The school caught fire and the sparks from the fire spread across the street to the steeple on top of St. Mary's Church. The steeple was also destroyed.
Today The Bank of America is located on the site where the school once stood.
