The town’s recorded words tell one story, but pictures tell another – often one that we have from no other source. There is often a great deal more information in a picture than in the written record.
A picture is worth a thousand words – but I’m only going to use 847. This picture shows Needham Fire Company #1, just after it was formed in 1885. Until that time, Needham, like most towns, relied on a corps of volunteers who were called out by the fire bell. The new fire house was on Chestnut Street, just across the street from the current fire house. In this picture, it is so new that the driveway has not yet been graded or cleared of rubble and grass.
Needham had organized a force of “fire engineers” in the early 1800s to respond to fires in town, but for the most part this response was haphazard. Fires were fought with buckets of water, and the primary task was to rescue people and valuables from the burning building, since there was little chance of actually putting out a large fire.
Needham began to acquire fire engines in the 1870s – hand-pumped tankers like “Niagara,” shown in the picture, that could bring large amounts of water to the scene. Then, as now, surrounding towns also sent engines to each other when needed.
In 1885, the town organized a systematic fire response, building two fire houses – Company #1 in Needham Center, and Company #2 in the Heights. A town wide alarm system and a hydrant system were installed a few years later. In August 1885, the Needham Chronicle reported: “The new tower on Engine House 2 [Heights Station] is completed and is strong and stable, though not very ornamental, evidently built for use and not for show. The new bell has been placed in position and connected with the fire alarm system. The tone of the bell is deep and clear and is a striking addition to the facilities of the fire department.”
That bell, by the way, was made by a man who apprenticed with Paul Revere. The bell stayed in the tower until 1948, when the new Heights station at the corner of Highland Avenue and Webster Street was built. The bell was then given to the History Center and stood on our front lawn on Glendoon Road for many years. It was reinstalled as a decorative bell in the brand-new Heights Station a few years ago, and can be seen in the glass tower.
The hand-pump “Niagara” was built in 1843 by the William C. Hunneman Company of Boston for the Hingham Fire Department. Hunneman also learned his craft at Paul Revere’s foundry in Canton, and began his own business in 1792. Niagara was purchased by Needham from Hingham by Needham in 1884 for a sum of $250. For the first year or so, there was no fire house to put it in, so it stayed in a succession of private barns near the center of town. The tank (the decorated part) was filled with water; the pump was operating by pulling up and down on the side rails. The engine was horse-drawn, but when time and distances were short, the firemen could pull the engine by grabbing the rails and running alongside. The small wheeled cart in back held extra hose and the various nozzles, wrenches and other necessary tools. Niagara was used in Needham until about 1916, when its copper tank was sold for scrap.
That is what the town’s recorded words tell us, but what else does the picture itself say? There is a great deal more information in the picture than in the written record, information we would not have from any other source. I already mentioned the brand-new firehouse. This is also our best view of the splendor of Niagara – in later pictures, the engine shows its age, missing most of its decorative paint and the fire bell. Firemen were proud of their engines, and Niagara was a beauty.
The men in the photo look like a capable bunch, posing in their shirtsleeves and wearing their hose wrenches in their belts. Their boots are scuffed and their clothes are well-worn and not particularly elegant. They do all maintain the polite convention of wearing hats in public – even if those hats have seen much better days. They all wear fire badges on their vests. I cannot find a list of who they are. I am assuming that they were the last of the volunteer force, since not one of them shows up in the official Fire Department photo only a few years later; but they are wearing fireman badges, so I’m not so sure.
Two of the men in the picture are African-American. That’s another thing I love about photos. They capture so much about the town’s life that is not written down. There is not a lot of good documentation about Black people living in Needham in the late 1800s. But photos like this one (and school photos) show that there were indeed Black people living and working in the community. Much more to find out.
By the way, though Niagara is gone, the hose cart at the back is not. It is part of the Needham History Center’s collection, and currently rests in the garage of the Mills House, along with several of the nozzles and wrenches.
Gloria Polizzotti Greis, Executive Director, Needham History Center & Museum