Bar Harbor Fire House

Jerry and Anna Lee are proud to turn over this blog entry to our daughter.

Whenever Cheryl, Dave and Bennett have tagged along on RV adventures with Bubbie and Zaidy, we have tried to maintain our tradition of checking out fire stations whenever the doors are open and the resident staff inviting. In Bar Harbor, we just couldn't resist the welcoming call of the beautiful 1911 red brick station on a beautiful summer evening.

And what a surprise we got when we entered. First, the Captain greeted us and invited us to take a peek around. Next, one of the firefighters surprised us all by coming downstairs in the most typical fashion - sliding down the pole! None of us saw him come down, so he obliged us and came down again - in time for Zaidy to get some pictures and Bennett to be awed.

Cheryl's curiosity was peaked by the old equipment she spotted around the fire station. Unable to answer our many questions, the slide-going firefighter recruited his colleague, a second generation fireman, to give us the grand tour. Like others of its age, the Bar Harbor Fire Station was built to house not fire trucks, but horses and carriages. Hay was stored on the second floor, and the chutes in which it was dropped down to the horses are still seen today. (We suspect that this practice of storing hay at the top would be frowned on by today's professional firefighters!) The firehouse still has the original ticker that notified the firemen of the location of the blaze and an old clock that was used to record incidences. Our guide explained that one man was always stationed near the equipment - it was his job to monitor the ticker and if a fire was called, to sound the alarm and provide the all-volunteer fire crew with the approximate location of the fire. There were numbers assigned to the different intersections and areas of the town - but without the benefit of GPS, the firemen didn't always know exactly where they were going.

Suited up, horses at the ready, and out the door, the last detail - a trivial matter that was surprisingly news to all of us - was that the small bollards at the base of each bay entrance were meant to keep the carriage wheels from hitting the walls of the building as the horses careened out the door. We have all seen these bollards on other old buildings, but never knew what they were for.

The Bar Harbor Fire Station has been in continual operation since it opened 105 years ago. The fireman said that the station was built for the astronomical sum of $30,000. It's held up beautifully with much of the original features in good working order. When our guide thought about the appeal of a new multi-million dollar state of the art station that had been built in a nearby town, he beamed with pride about the station that he calls home - and its unquestionable character and history. For him, and for us, newer just isn't the same.