Thanks to the continual help and support of Baltimore Gas and Electric, the restoration of a nineteenth-century gas pole and fire alarm box is complete! The pole was lifted out of the back garden of the Peale Center for Baltimore History and Architecture by volunteer BGE engineers and was taken to be restored by David Conrad of Baltimore Foundry Works on an early Saturday morning in March. The pole was initially installed on the South East corner of Monument Street, and Park Ave (see photograph provided by Kevin Larmore) in 1906. When the City’s call box system was shut down in the middle of the twentieth century, it was installed in the historic Peale Museum’s garden. Now you may be asking, what exactly is a fire alarm box, and why is it significant?
Baltimore first installed its call box system in 1859-1860 and was the first line of defense when it came to fires within the City. Each call box had wiring running to the central office, which was located on the second floor of the Peale Museum building, by then being used as City Hall, from 1859 up until 1896. When the fire alarm box was pulled, the central office would get the signal and would relay it to the appropriate fire station. When the firemen arrived at the scene, they would signal back to the central office by pulling the alarm box several more times, utilizing Morse code to communicate if they needed more men or equipment. In this way, the Peale served as the nerve center for the city’s fire alarm system.
The Peale Museum’s founder, Rembrandt Peale, had introduced another new technology, gas lighting, to his galleries two generations before. In order to attract visitors at night and sell more tickets to his Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts, in 1816 Peale began illuminating his galleries with gas light chandeliers on specially-advertised evenings. By 1817, Rembrandt Peale and his partners had founded the Gas Light Company of Baltimore, which is today Baltimore Gas and Electric, and secured the contract to supply gas streetlights throughout the City of Baltimore. Through his efforts, Baltimore was the first city in the United States, and one of the first in the world, to be illuminated by gas lighting. Gas lights lined the streets of Baltimore up until the late 1950s when they almost entirely removed. Through the restoration of this pole and fire box, it will serve as an excellent artifact to showcase this aspect of Baltimore’s innovative history.
See the renovation process below!
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