History of the Montclair Fire Department

An affluent community can only so long tolerate lacking a fire department. Over twelve years went by after Montclair’s incorporation as a township in 1868 before serious action was taken to address it, a serious oversight which contributed to the destruction of among others Crump’s Label Print Works, the Kindergarten School, the so-called “Jacobus Building” (“the largest building in town,” according to Dr. S. C. G. Watkins) which then contained the office of The Montclair Times, and the Pillsbury Building. When the Thorndyke Saunders’s (who had for some years unsuccessfully advocated for the purchase of a fire engine) house went up in flames in 1882, Montclair had had enough.

After Mr. Saunders in a letter to The Montclair Times queried, noting the lack of concrete action thus far regarding fire protection, “whether it was not about time to ‘carry something through,” Charles M. Schott, Jr., (a newcomer to Montclair), along with two local businessmen, a realtor, a ship broker, and an oculist, called a well-attended meeting of forty. This meeting rapidly moved forward and established the volunteer Montclair Hook and Ladder Company No. 1. A concurrent attempt to create an engine company foundered on account of lacking water supply.

First iteration of the Hook and Ladder Company No. 1. Notice the bell tower in the read. Year Unknown. Montclair History Center collection.

Later iteration of the Hook and Ladder Company No. 1 . Previously on the corner of Valley Road and Bloomfield Avenue where the police station is currently located. Year unknown. Montclair History Center collection.

As C. M. Schott, Jr. had been in the Summerville (NJ) Fire Department, with the new volunteer firemen a motley mix of amateurs from many walks of life, it was small wonder that he was elected to head this new organization, coming to be nicknamed the “Chief.” Subscriptions financed the purchase of a truck, which “remained in service until 1892.” The company was not recognized by the municipal government until early in March 1884, when it provided funding to construct a firehouse, which would be on “Bloomfield Avenue near Valley Road.”

Later that year, the company bought a Babcock Chemical Engine, and the Township Committee “ordered the building of a bell tower, and the purchase of a bell,” which would be rung at nine-o-clock p.m. every evening. The next February, the District Fire Alarm and Messenger Company emerged from the efforts of forward-thinking volunteer firemen, aiming to expedite the process of alerting firefighters and the public in case of fire, but insufficient backing forced it to shutter before the year was out.

In early March of that same year, “the Montclair fire Department was organized by the Township Committee.” After a failed vote, the town eventually voted to set in place water supply for the department in 1887, and two years later the fire bell (whose tower had burned down during the earlier debates on water supply) was entrusted to charge of the police, who thenceforth would ring it in place of the firemen.

The decision to introduce a water supply precipitated the creation of four volunteer hose companies: Montclair Hose Company No. 1 (composed of firemen from the Hook and Ladder Company and based initially at the center before receiving a new home from the Township Committee), the Excelsior Hose Company No. 2 (the first of the Montclair fire companies to own a horse to draw its equipment, with a “small house on the corner of Cedar Street and Harrison Avenue” and established “for the protection of the south end of the township”), Washington Hose Company No. 3 (its headquarters initially located on 210 Bloomfield Avenue, soon receiving a house, before obtaining new quarters after the incorporation of Montclair as a town in 1894), and Cliffside Hose Company No. 4 (“located on Bellevue Avenue near the railroad crossing” before relocating in 1902 to 588 Valley Road, today’s Station No. 2). With great fanfare the water supply was tested by these companies (except for the Hose Company No. 4, which was formed shortly after this occasion) and determined to be “satisfactory” on November 17, 1887.

Montclair Fire Department Hose Company No. 2. Year unknown. Montclair History Center collection.

Montclair Fire Department Hose Company No. 3. Year unknown. Montclair History Center collection.

The dream of the defunct District Fire Alarm and Messenger Company was finally realized in 1892, with the completion of “An electric fire alarm system … and fifteen boxes placed in convenient localities throughout the township” which were soon joined by a further 17. In 1901, the Town council decided to allocate $75,000 in bonds for the construction of three fire houses.

Modernization in the town’s infrastructure and administration eventually contributed to the end of the volunteer structure of Montclair’s Fire Department. Writing in 1894, historian Henry Whittemore noted that with Montclair’s vote to become a full-fledged town, the old Fire Committee would be “succeeded by a Board of Fire Commissioners.” He concluded his section on the Montclair Fire Department thusly, with a mix of nostalgia and faith in progress which characterized the time:

“So gradually, the familiar features of the old style volunteer fireman’s organization are disappearing, and it becomes more modern every day; so that this town will soon practically enjoy the services of a model, modern fire department, second to none in the State and the equal of the paid city departments for efficacy, at a very slight cost.”

It took nearly another generation for this transformation to be completed. Sixteen years later, in 1910, the Montclair Fire Department was reconstituted into a part-volunteer, part-professional organization. This state of affairs lasted another four years before volunteers were phased out entirely and “a paid department was established,” numbering around forty, the same year the First Congregational Church was burned down. During these four years, “The first apparatus, an engine and a truck, were purchased in 1912, as part of a gradual modernization of the firefighting force “until in 1930, the four firehouses located in different parts of the town, carried a total equipment of three hose wagons, two engines, two trucks, a Chief’s car and an electrician’s service truck.” Shortly thereafter, the “Board of Commissioners … appropriated $13,000 for the purchase of a new 1,000 gallon pumping engine.” Writing in 1934, historian Edwin B. Goodell described it as “a highly organized, well disciplined force for extinguishing flames—and for other things.”

 

Cliffside Hose Company No. 4. Previously located on Bellevue Avenue in Upper Montclair. The area is now Anderson Park. Year unknown. Montclair Public Library collection.

 

Much has changed in the years since, but many of the historical buildings associated with the Montclair Fire Department remain. The fire department’s headquarters building on 647 Bloomfield Avenue, constructed in 1904, remained in operation until the new headquarters at 1 Pine Street replaced it in 2003. Station 1, “built in 1905, was located at 95 Walnut Street until that too was relocated to the new Headquarters. Station 2, built in 1901, is located at 588 Road and is still occupied today.” Station 3, on 151 Harrison Avenue, was also built in 1901, but was “temporarily closed for repairs” in July 2023. After well over a hundred years of exemplary public service, the Montclair Fire Department continues to render critical services.

Philip Zhou, MHC Collections Management Intern

Horse-drawn fire engine, year unknown. Montclair History Center collection.

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