| ORG N-QTRS DISB | 4935 Oberlin Boulevard 1238 Carolina Avenue | 1903 1903 1922 |
After Engine 40 was disbanded, the building was lifted with jacks and a foundation was put in place. It is a small apartment house today, barely recognizable as the same building. |
Members of the Home Guard (National Guard) and firefighters pose with Engine 40's apparatus. This photo was most likely taken after the 1919 strike. There are also photos of the Home Guard in the sections for Engine 27 and Truck 3.
Photo Steve Hagy collection
1913 Republic/Ahrens-Fox 250 gpm Ten of these rigs with front mounted booster pumps were delivered to the C.F.D. in 1913. Republic automobiles were built in Hamilton, Ohio and Ahrens-Fox assembled these small rigs on the car chassis.
Photo Steve Hagy Collection
Engine 40's house is decorated for Memorial Day 1910. A crowd has gathered to hear the Bond Hill Band play.
Photo Steve Hagy Collection
This austere, single-bay station was design by Harry Hake for Fire Company 40. The exterior of the wood frame building had little in the way of decoration as was typical of other houses built in this era.
Photo Steve Hagy Collection
Plain is the word to describe the interior of the apparatus floor at the 40's. A pair of stalls was provided for the horses and little else.
One interesting feature of the station is the circular stairway in the left, front corner. Tradition has held that circular stairs were used in firehouses since horses could not climb them. In stations that had straight stairways it was rumored that the horses would climb to the second floor! Although it was easy going on the way up, the horses came down the stairs rather reluctantly.
Photo Steve Hagy Collection
A dormitory, locker room, and hay loft were on the second floor of the station along with a "well hole" for the 2 1/2" iron pole.
The locker room was only provided with 4 lockers so the plan must have been that this company would not be equipped with a steam fire engine as that would require a larger crew. In addition to hay, bins for oat and bran were installed in the loft.
Photo Steve Hagy Collection
This station was built fairly simple (inexpensive). There was no hose tower or provision for fire alarm telegraph equipment. Apparently alarms for fires in Bond Hills must have been received locally at the firehouse.
Photo Steve Hagy Collection
The Bond Hill Volunteer Fire Department operated from a building on the northeast corner of Washington & Morton streets. The building, and those street names, are no longer around. This Sandbord Insurance map from 1904 shows the location of the firehouse at what is now the intersection of Carolina Avenue and Oberlin Boulevard. After Bond Hill was annexed to the city of Cincinnati the first building fire in the neighborhood was in a barn located on Laidlaw Avenue. Engine 32, with their horsedrawn apparatus, was first due after the 40's with it's 1 paid firefighter!
Photo David J. Jones Collection
Engine 40 Quarters 1999
Photo George Bredestege