The Firefighters of Bellows Falls

(This is the 15th in a series of short posts exploring the history of the bridges, buildings, and industry of Bellows Falls in light of the plan to replace the Depot Street Bridge in the coming years. Researched and written by Betsy Thurston with funding from the Vermont Agency of Transportation, past posts have looked at the Arch Bridge, the Bellows Falls Canal, and the houses of Canal Street. You can see the full list of posts here. Subscribing to this blog will keep you up to date on the Depot Street Bridge project—and provide interesting reading!)

Each year during the second week of October, Bellows Falls firefighters and first responders join their colleagues from around the country in marking Fire Prevention Week. It's a time to honor the courage and dedication of those who fight our fires and to educate the public about fire prevention.

Did you know that Fire Prevention Week was first proclaimed by one of our own, President Calvin Coolidge, exactly 100 years ago? Established to commemorate the Great Chicago Fire of October 1871, it is the country's longest-running public health observance.

October makes us think about the critical role that firefighters have played throughout the history of Bellows Falls and Rockingham.

This is especially poignant as we celebrate the life of Bellows Falls firefighter Larry Clark, who passed away on October 4. Captain Clark, shown below in the 1970s, served the Bellows Falls Fire Department for 58 of his 74 years.

The Bellows Falls Historical Society is set to announce plans for a Larry Clark Research Room at its annual meeting on Saturday, October 25, at 11:00 AM. The meeting will take place at the Society's recently refurbished 46 Canal Street location. If you attend, you'll have an opportunity to view Bill Lockwood's miniature village and fire department exhibit celebrating Fire Prevention Week. You can read more about the annual meeting and the exhibit here.

Also, November 1 will begin the transition to a centralized municipal fire department with three stations in Bellows Falls, Saxtons River, and Rockingham. This consolidation was approved by Rockingham voters in March by a vote of 191-103.

In keeping with our ongoing posts on the history of Bellows Falls as we prepare to replace the Depot Street Bridge and improve both Canal Street and the Island, let's look at how fire and firefighters have shaped downtown Bellows Falls.

Damaging Fires in the Early 1900s

The Bellows Falls Fire Department was founded in 1825. In the following photograph, taken in 1909 and provided courtesy of the Rockingham Free Public Library, we can see the crew (and mascot) of Bellows Falls Hook and Ladder Company No. 1. (People's Bakery, to the right of the firehouse, is now the vacant lot at 7 Rockingham Street.)

The four-story brick and stone Bellows Falls Firehouse was built in 1904 and originally served double duty as the town's police station. Today, 17 Rockingham Street is mixed commercial and residential use, and the building is for sale for $354,000.

Three years after the above photograph was taken, the Great Bellows Falls Fire of March 1912 devastated downtown, destroying the three principal business buildings: the Union Block, the Arms Block, and the Hotel Windham (its forerunner, the Towns Hotel, had been damaged in an April 1899 fire). According to local reporting, the fire may have been caused by a carelessly thrown cigarette butt.

The photographs below, courtesy of the Bellows Falls Fire Department, show the massive devastation of the Square and Hotel Windham, as well as the frigid temperatures firefighters endured that cold and snowy March.

The Island House Fire

An August 1907 fire gutted the Island House, a large brick building with white pillars built in 1849 on the highest point of the Island by Colonel Roswell Shurtleff, who owned most of the land on the Island.

The Island House became a destination for wealthy visitors to the Connecticut River Valley and the White Mountains. Both President Ulysses S. Grant and General W. T. Sherman spoke from its balcony in 1869. All good things must come to an end, though, and the Island House closed in 1887 and was used for storage by the Vermont Farm Machinery Company until the building's destruction in 1907.

Below are the Island House shortly after construction and in ruins the day after the fire.

As the Island became an industrial district home to mills, factories, and railroads, fire would become a fact of life, and the role of the Bellows Falls Fire Department would become increasingly important.

In our next blog post, we'll look at the firefighting career of Captain Larry Clark and how his life and career would intersect in the 1970s and 1980s with devastating fires that made a lasting impact on Clark, on the Town of Rockingham, and on the Village of Bellows Falls.

Questions?

You can email us at any time with questions about the Depot Street Bridge replacement project at developmentassist@rockbf.org.  You can also send us information on the history of the area, which we'll be happy to share with the community through this blog.