Wissahickon Fire Company - The Early Years

Incorporated as a borough in 1888, Ambler was considered a very progressive community.  Seems strange then that it lacked adequate means of fighting fires. There was only the antiquated bucket brigade, with plans by Keasbey & Mattison Company to install underground pipes to carry water under pressure into the center of the borough. 

Over a period of seventeen years there had been only two major fires in the Village of Ambler. One of these, on the last day of the year 1869, consumed the deserted Fulling Mill of the Ambler family, while the next, in 1886, burned Theodore Quinty's brand new house to the ground in an hour's time. Evidently residents did not feel the need for up-dating their fire-fighting equipment. 

All this was to change dramatically in February of 1890 when the worst fire to date struck the Buchanan Building at the northeast corner of Butler & Main.  The three-storied stone and frame structure, not yet three years old, was completely destroyed in a short time.  After neighbor David Knipe saw smoke coming from the cellar windows, a rider was dispatched to Jenkintown to solicit the aid of their fire departments. Their equipment was placed on a flat railroad car and sent up to Ambler, but too late to be of any help.  The building had already been destroyed as residents watched helplessly with only buckets of water to fight it.   Hoses from Keasbey & Mattison were too short to reach the fire scene. Lost also were the recently abandoned toll house and sheds of the Ambler Park Hotel, with other buildings saved by tacking carpeting to the walls, and saturating it with water. 

It was this disaster that brought about the formation of Ambler's first fire company the following year.  The charter was approved on April 6, 1891, when "Wissahickon Fire Company of Ambler" became a reality. First meeting place was on the second floor of Plumly's General Store at Main & Race, now a part of Deck's Hardware.  Shortly thereafter, they moved into their new quarters in one of J. Watson Craft's buildings on North Main Street, where they would remain for a quarter century. 

The alarm system for the new Wissahickon Fire Company seems to have been a problem from the very beginning.  Mounted in the cupola on the firehouse roof, the alarm bell proved to be unsatisfactory, and by 1907 was replaced with a locomotive tire received from the Reading Railroad. 

This metal tire was not loud enough either to be heard in all parts of the borough, for in 1911 a new method was once again considered. This time it was to be a shrill whistle mounted on the outside wall of Doctor Mattison's Shingle Plant just across the tracks and not far from the firehouse.  Activated electrically by a push button at the firehouse, the new whistle once again was not loud enough, making it necessary to order another high-pitched, piercing whistle. This proved to be only slightly more efficient.

 There was great concern about getting to the fire scene promptly in those early days.  So great was it, that in 1908 sleeping quarters were provided in the firehouse for the driver of the fire wagon who had a telephone next to his bed.  Additionally, two sets of hanging harness were installed in front of the fire wagon for rapid gearing of the horses in time of alarm.  The horses, stabled in the rear of the building, had been purchased from J. Watson Craft, owner of the Lumber & Coal Yard.  To pay for these horses, a committee was formed to solicit funds from property owners in and around Ambler. 

The two horses saw double duty, for they were used in street work by the borough. When the alarm sounded, commissioner of streets Albert Kulp would rush to the firehouse, unhitch the horses and hitch them to the chemical wagon and drive to the fire scene. 

The Fire Company owned property near the southwest corner of Butler & Main, adjacent to Doc Ambler's General Store, where it was hoped they would one day build a new firehouse.  The new building never came about, because in 1916 the Palace Movie Theatre of Carrie Heiss on Butler Avenue was torched by an arsonist.  Deciding not to re-build, Mrs. Heiss instead placed the property on the market.  This was purchased by Wissahickon later that year. Using the standing walls of the burned-out Palace Theatre, a new building was erected, with dedication of this, their second location, scheduled for November of 1917.