May 5, 1950 Firehouse Remodeling

 Some of the most enjoyable Snippet items come as a surprise. They arrive when an unknown item is found, through a question or comment, or in today’s case, the presentation of a photograph.

Bill Palmer, Ovid’s Fire Chief, brought the Interlaken Historical Society a photo one day with the comment that it belonged here. The photo, shown below, is a clear picture of what the firehouse looked like in the 1940s. It also brought to mind the question of when was the firehouse front remodeled?

Interlaken Fire Department, late 1940s early 1950s.
Interlaken Historical Society photo collection.

I went looking in the newspaper and village board records. The Village Board meeting on March 4, 1950 reported, “Ernest Peterson, fire chief, present, stating need for enlargement of firehouse on main floor and other necessary repairs.”

This may have been prompted by the purchase of a new truck in 1949, a Dodge Model J-152 with pumping equipment. The prices as noted in the two resolutions passed by the Village board totaled under $10,000.

Back to the remodeling of the firehouse. The board approved the work, and so far, I have not been able to find any specifics of the work in either the newspapers, village board minutes or the Interlaken Fire Department monthly meeting minutes.

What I did find is the May 5, 1950 village board meeting minutes, “Motion by Hildebrand, second by Morehouse that Trustee Stewart be empowered to sell overhead door at front of Fire House, carried.” One can presume that the new doors were installed if the old door was being sold. Again, not a perfect date, but it works for this snippet.

Once the remodeling, at least the exterior remodeling, was done, the front had two bay doors. The old entrance door was moved to the side of the building.

Firehouse with two doors, circa 1954, The line through the picture is either telephone or electical wire.
Interlaken Historical Society photo collection #

Other remodeling would continue inside as recorded in the Fire Department Minutes. A new kitchen was added between February 1950 and the open house in early 1951.

At some point the stairway was also moved to the outside, or a second stairway added as shown in this photo of the Farmer’s Museum across the street.

On a further historical note, the building originally served as William Peterson’s Dry Goods store. Dewitt reported in his diary, June 8, 1929, “Uncle Will had a sale of store fixtures today. The town has bought his store for engine rooms.”

Dewitt’s Diary Friday May 5, 1950

Temperature 45, Cloudy and acting like rain and south breeze. Cleaned up the orchard across the creek. The old apple orchard is about finished although there were apples on every tree last fall. We planted 3 ½ acres of oats this afternoon. Very strong south wind this afternoon.

Geese flying this morning.

Warm temperature 80 this afternoon.