The Firemen's Museum
During the summer of 2002, city officials
quietly decided during a budget crunch to close the Firemen's Museum, which
was founded in 1955 to preserve the history of firefighting in New Bern.
Little did they realize how beloved this museum on Hancock Street is to city
residents and visitors alike. An uproar led city officials to reverse their
decision and keep the museum open until a working committee of local
business leaders and volunteers developed fund-raising plans to come up with
the $52,000 needed annually to run the museum. (The committee also hopes to
raise the additional funds needed to renovate the old New Bern fire station
building on Broad Street as a new home for the museum.)
The museum documents New Bern's rich firefighting history, starting with the Atlantic Hook & Ladder Company, which was chartered on May 14, 1845. During the Civil War, when most of its members were away serving in the Confederate Army, the Atlantic Company was mostly inactive. Seeing a need for an active firefighting company, Union soldiers, many of whom stayed in New Bern after the war was over, formed the New Berne Steam Fire Engine Company No. 1 on January 1, 1865. This company was later nicknamed the Button Company for its 1884 Button fire engine.
The rivalry between the Atlantic and the Button stations was fierce, despite their consolidation into one fire department in 1867. This rivalry provided decades of entertainment during parades, fairs and tournaments, and local residents would gather at blazes in anticipation of seeing which company would arrive first. The rivalry continued until 1928, when both companies were housed in a central fire station on Broad Street.
Even though the technology is obsolete now, the Button Company still holds the world's records for producing standing steam (in 1 minute and 46 seconds) and for running quick steam (in 2 minutes and 12 seconds). However, the Atlantic Company won several competitions in its own right, including the state championship for reel racing several times. Prior to the arrival of the first motorized engines in 1914 for the Button Company and in 1925 for the Atlantic Company, fire engines were pulled by fire horses, several of which are honored in the museum with paintings and displays.
The first fire horses were "volunteers," owned by local merchants and loaned to the fire department as emergencies dictated. A painting honors the horse who pulled the hose wagon to a state championship in 1911, when members of the Button Company "laid 228 feet of fire hose, screwed on the fire nozzle and flowed water in 26 2/5 seconds," a world's record that still stands today. The mounted head of the Atlantic Company's fire horse, Fred, who pulled the fire wagon for more than 17 years and dropped dead while answering a false alarm in 1925, is on display, as are many of the early fire wagons, steam engines and fire trucks. Photographic exhibits document New Bern's greatest fires, including the 1922 blaze that consumed a 40-block area and left 3,000 people homeless.
The museum, located at 408 Hancock Street, is
open Monday through Saturday from 10 AM to 4 PM. Admission is $5 for adults
and $2.50 for children, and additional donations are greatly appreciated.
For information call (252) 636-4087.