A Long Lost Hartford Fire Bucket

Instances from the city's firefighting history

Photograph taken c. 1900 of the old Seymour cider warehouse at 16 Park Street. (Image from the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History)

In my most recent video on YouTube I talk about buildings that once stood along the west side of Main Street In Hartford, between Park Street and Buckingham Street. Today there is a new mixed-use development at the corner of Park and Main, which for a long time was a parking lot. A century and a quarter ago, there was a cider and vinegar-making business located in an old wooden building at 16 Park Street, just a few feet west of the corner of Main Street. It was owned and operated by John Seymour, who also rented out space in the building to a tailor. Seymour and his father Horace had long operated a grocery store at the corner of Park and Main, which by that time was being run by C. H. Strong.

A Fire in 1904

On July 20, 1904, a fire started on the roof of the old cider warehouse. As reported in The Hartford Courant the next day:

When Mr. Seymour's son saw it, the roof was in a lively blaze and he ran around to engine house No. 1. The firemen turned out with the hose wagon first, but the blaze looked threatening and an alarm was rung at 12:02 from Box 5 at the engine house. Chemical No. 9 put the fire almost all out, but after the other companies had been dismissed more fire was found. No. 1 was called out again and a hydrant stream turned on.

The building is sixty years old and of little value. Part of the woodwork gave way under Foreman Dimock of No. 9 and he only saved himself from a fall by clinging to other crosspleces. The damage is $25, with no insurance.

Examples of three early nineteenth-century leather fire buckets. The Horace Seymour bucket would have been similar to these.

The Gift of an Antique Fire Bucket

The Courant also reported that the firefighters were presented with a reward for their services:

Mrs. Seymour gave the firemen a leather fire bucket of the long past days of the volunteers. The bucket is marked with the name Horace Seymour, and No. 1. signifying the company which was entitled to the benefit of the use of the bucket. The bucket, which was in the part of the building where the fire was, but was unharmed, is rather dilapidated to say the least. It was covered with dust and the bottom had become unfastened for about half its extent.

The firemen of chemical No. 9, to whom the bucket was given, turned it over to Assistant Driver John G. Barnard, a member of the veterans' association, and he presented it to the association. It will be kept as it is, without any repairs. Mr. Seymour says that the bucket was the last one of a dozen that his father, Horace Seymour, had made 100 years ago. Mr. Seymour, sr. was much Interested in the fire department and before his death in 1876 often spoke of the old days in comparison with the more modern ways of doing things.

Mr. Seymour says that all the dozen buckets were in existence fifty years ago to his knowledge, but where the others have gone to he does not know. This last one he has kept carefully in the warehouse the last fifteen years, but instead of being used for fire duty, it has been put to such comparatively base use as a receptacle for apples.

The current location of the Seymour fire bucket is unknown.

Image of Engine Company No. 4 Fire Station on Ann Street, c. 1911. The self-propelled Amoskeag Engine that burned three awnings along on Main Street on July 20, 1904 is shown in front of the station. Image from The Forty-seventh Annual Report of the Board of Fore Commissioners to the Court of Common Council of the City of Hartford, Conn. For the Fiscal Year Ending March 31, 1911.

Burnt Awnings

A potential hazard of the modern equipment was experienced by several business owners along Main Street. As the Courant reporter observed:

The next time the fire alarm is rung from a box calling out the propellers, merchants had better reef their awnings until the apparatus is safe in quarters again. As the result of an alarm yesterday noon, No. 4 set fire to two awnings on the way and a third on the way back. [. . . .]

The awnings fired by No. 4 on the way to the fire were at Moss Brothers' store, No. 705 Main street, and at George J. Loefler's drug store, No. 715. Only holes were burned, but the awning in front of F. W. Franzen's saloon, No. 359 Main street was almost all burned by sparks from the propeller as it was going home. The woodwork was scorched and about $16 damage done, insured.

The fire station of Engine Company No. 4 was located on Ann Street. The damage to the awnings was caused by their self-propelled Amoskeag Engine, which had been placed in service in August 1901. Franzen’s saloon was located in the south end of the McKone Block, an 1875 building that still exists today. Peppercorn’s Grill occupies the space today

Photograph of Main Street, c. 1880. I’ve put a yellow circle around the location where an awning in front of F. W. Franzen’s saloon would be burned by a passing fire engine in 1904.

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