1916: THE CHANDLER PALRUBA FIRE, YARDVI.LLE

This was one of the area's very tragic fires.

1951 AND 1908: TRENTON BRASS AND MACHINE CO.

The view above shows the front facade of the Trenton Brass and Machine Company which experienced a very serious fire back in 1908 as can be seen in the article below the photo.

1931: THE CAPITOL THEATER FIRE

 

The Capitol was the location of my very first date with my high school sweetheart and wife of 59 years, Judy Britton. I took her to see "SHOW BOAT;" a musical which has songs that take me back to the years when I courted Judy. As can be seen in the photos above, the building was destroyed as a result of that horrendous fire.

1913: CHAMBERSBURG'S "3 HORSE FIRE TRUCK"

This news photo and the accompanying article from my "FIRE-FIRE RELATED" folder in the Local History Collection. It has been scanned, re-formatted and enhanced and the logo for the fantastic Med Havens Fire Museum over on the fire house on Perry Street in Trenton. A number of years ago, I was a tour guide on the Contemporary Club's annual "Four Tours of Trenton." One of the spots my tour included was Med Havens' Civil War and Fire Museum. What an incredible collection! Check out their website at http://www.trentonfiremuseum.com where you will find rare and priceless fire fighting implements.

1885: A DESTRICTIVE FIRE AT YARDVILLE

This would have been in an era where the rural villages of Hamilton Township and other rural Mercer County communities were sadly lacking in fire fighting equipment.

1873: TRENTON'S GOODWILL VOLUNTEER FIRE COMPANY

Many years ago, I paid a visit to Meredith "Med" Havens home in the Cadwalader section of Trenton to purchase a stack of his duplicate "Trenton" magazines. Med had a collection of fire memorabilia that at the time I remember saying was museum quality. Med said they would ultimately be in a museum. Much of Med's collection is in the Trenton Fire Museum on Perry Street in downtown Trenton.

trentonfiremuseum.com

1934: TRENTON HOSE NO. 1 HAND DRAWN FIRE APPARATUS

How I love sepia views! In fact, I am going to convert some future posts from "gray scale" to sepia. The above Trenton Public Library photo from the March 11, 1934 Trenton Times has been "de-screened," enhanced and turned into sepia, giving a beautiful example of a typical early 19th century hand drawn fire vehicle.

Anonymous said...

They took sport with those old horse drawn pumpers in the cartoons and the Little Rascals serial. The only horse drawn holdout I remember was Jake the rag man and his call for "rags and bones". Regarding the State House fire, I remember seeing a portion of the old roof in the space over the current governors "inner" office. They did not fully demolish it but just built around it.

Ed Millerick

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

1916:CLAIRE DWIER ZARR COMMENTS ON THE TRAGIC FIRE OF 1916

I had posted graphics on the tragic Chandler-Palruba fire in Yardville back in August. A recent guest book comment by Ms. Claire Dwier Zarr adds an historic comment to supplement the graphics and gives a personal flavor to the disaster. Claire wrote:

Hi Tom--Just catching up on some of your posts and read the post re: the Chandler Oilcloth Company explosion in Yardville, May 1916. My grandfather, Nimrod Dwier, was one of the injured that day. Growing up I had always heard about the explosion and that he had been seriously burned, but I didn't know all the details. It was very interesting to read the accounting of the explosion and to learn of the others who were injured or, sadly, succumbed to their injuries that day. After reading about it, one can just imagine how strongly the incident affected the residents in the Yardville/Groveville communities. I'm very grateful my grandfather made it through that terrible ordeal and lived long enough for me to get to know him!

Fire Protection in Hamilton was not as efficient as it is today. However, the local firemen did an admirable job of fighting this fire which began as an explosion that had numerous fatalities. The factory was located near the railroad tracks on South Broad Street, across the street from the old Kaye Tex factory.

1941: John A. Roebling Galvanizing Plant,,Hamilton Township

The above graphic shows an aerial view of the area described in the 1941 article from the Library's "ROEBLING" file regarding a fire at the Roebling Galvanizing plant. This post is in response to Mr. Dave Briegel, who was looking for information on the Roebling-Hamilton connection. I would guess that this is the "Lalor Street Plant" that you referred to, Dave.

From Dave Briegel:

I live off of Lalor. A debate has been going round. Can anyone help! There was for a time, a John Roebling "Lalor Street Plant". I believe it to have been on the Hamilton side of Lalor across from the current Lalor Plaza Shopping Center along the railroad siding. Another local believes it to have been on the site of the shopping center. My recollection tells me that the shopping center site was a pottery, not Roebling.
We are aware of the Buckthorne Plant of Roebling which now is the Metro Center of Nexus Properties off Jersey Street on the Trenton side.
Can anyone help! And if so, does any kind of map,.... exist that could provide a visual.

AGAIN, WITH THANKS TO DAVE BRIEGEL:

Tom,

Thanks for the lead regarding Lalor Street Plant of Roebling and Sons. With your info, an aerial photo from a Roebling catalogue, and a drive down Hewitt Street, I believe the issue to have been settled. In fact if you drive down Hewitt Street you will still find the concrete foundation wall, a few red brick courses, and a stairway identified as a "North Side Warehouse". And from the aerial photo, a railroad siding appears to have entered the plant at Lalor between two buildings which are now enhabited by a moving company.

Thanks in advance!

1931: DISASTROUS FIRE AT THE RKO CAPITOL

If you look closely, you will see that the theater was still under the B.F. Kieth management. However, the sign was yet to be changed to the familiar RKO logo. I had to do a bit of cut, copying, and pasting in order to get this into a screen legible format. I also added the movie that was playing on the night of the fire.

1980: FIRE AT BROMLEY PROVISIONS PLANT

1935: WHEN THE TRENTON FIRE DEPARTMENT WAS ALL VOLUNTEER

I ask your indulgence for the poor quality of the photo in the graphic. In computing, there is a problem that sometimes arises in the process of "screening"an offset photo such as that above. In the case above, no amount of tweaking could remove that background "moire" which give the appearance of a fabric. It is due to the incompatibility of the number of dots per inch on a news photo as relates to the number of dots per inch scanned. I failed to find a happy medium. The hand drawn pumper in the photo was used by one of the Trenton volunteer fire companies prior to their 1892 changeover to a paid fire department.

1938: FIRE AT THE OLD WASHINGTON MARKET SITE

The city of Trenton had its share of destructive fires during the first half of the 20th century. I recall two particularly damaging fires during the mid 1940's; one a the Binder's establishment, and another at the New Jersey Floor Covering Plant, both in downtown Trenton. The fire in the photos above shows that stretch of property going "down hill" from State and Broad, on the western side of South Broad Street,

1938: Three of the Lenhardt Boys

These are the three Lenhardt boys I grew up with. Even though Jack has been a Chief and a leading light in the Mercerville Volunteer Fire Co. for years, his roots are planted firmly on Kuser Road where he and the Lenhardt family grew up. I can still remember seeing these three boys perched in the Lenhardt farm tractor as they tilled the fields of John Lenhardt's farm.In my mind, Colonial Volunteer Fire Company automatically brings up images of many of the Lenhardt names I recall. Let's see there was Jack, Joe, Ray, George, Bernie, Bob, Bill.....and of course who could ever forget "Big John" Lenhardt! I can still see him on his weekly delivery rounds bringing fresh Lenhardt Jersey sweet corn to our front doors. JohnLenhardt was a giant of a man with the heart of gold. Further, the Lenhardt family's dedication to fire fighting and saving lives and homes will never be forgotten by those of us who knew and know the family.

1913: Trenton's New Fire Apparatus

As you can see, the recent disruption in this website has been solved. Google advised that it could take at least 24 hours until verification was received that I subscribed for an additional 10 gigabytes of storage. As it turns out, it was only a matter of 6 or 8 hours. You will notice that the graphic has extreme gray tones, unlike the posts I like to clean to replicate the originals. This particular page was extremely foxed (tanned) and didn't lend itself to adjusting the exposure levels.

1913: HOPEWELL FIRE CO. 95 YEARS AGO

This fascinating photo of the horse-drawn fire apparatus of the Hopewell Fire Company as it looked in 1913, before there were fire hydrants. The lack of fire hydrants in that area is still a problem, as witness the destruction just this past week of one of the Hopewell area's "McManions."

1944: SIGNAL 22: SELFLESS VOLUNTEERS

We have all heard and seen the dedicated volunteers who go to major fires with their support unit, serving hot coffee in the winter time and cold beverages in the summer, along with snacks to assist the firemen who are sometimes on the scene at all hours, in all kinds of weather, and in very disastrous fires. I had the pleasure of knowing Ed Fisher; a fire historian second only to the late Meredith "Med" Havens.

1932: (Ca 1932) Area Firemen Testing Equipment at Gropp's Lake

1989: Fire Fighting: High Standards!

As you will see when you read the article above, fire fighting today is a far cry from the bucket brigades of old, and even a further far cry for the past due to the lack of volunteers. Fire fighting takes a very special and very courageous individual. We should be very thankful that there are those who have that special dedication and courage.