Where Gumbo Was #430
Gumbo was at the St. Croix No. 1 Firehouse, in Calais, Maine, a city right on the border with Canada. Congratulations to George G for finding him!
Fires have been devastating to Calais. A fire in 1858 destroyed 10 buildings. Another fire in August of 1870 destroyed much of the downtown. Construction in downtown started soon after the 1870 fire and all new buildings were made of brick. Today Downtown, Calais is known for its beautiful brick buildings.
Because of that history, the St. Croix No. 1 Firehouse has been very important to Calais. It was built in 1874 and in use until 1970. It was used by the Happy Gang Senior Citizens for events until 2003 when repairs became too costly and they gave the station back to the city. Lt. Dick Barnard then brought together interested people on both sides of the border and started fundraising for the much needed repairs. And throughout the years they raised the money and made most of the repairs. After all the repairs are made they want to have a community gathering place and firehouse museum. It has already been used as a community gathering place for different events.
The station itself is really cool. It was built to house two horse-drawn steam pumper fire engines that were is use until the 1920’s. There is also a hose drying tower topped by an open belfry. Hose towers were built to hang and dry canvas hoses so they didn’t deteriorate as fast.
Great to see the whole Calais / St Stephen community rally behind this historic firehouse with mainly small donations, time and effort.
