Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-12

- k8Ocm0nekc,
eehneider. wenlin Sauter. james Speakes Fer
dinando Tlrton William r. TAFT, Louis Vivans,
John Vernon William Wilson and John
Williams.
Hose Divis.cn-James Kelly, captain. Mem
beers: G. T. McGlue, John Wilson, william
Brown, r. w. Bates. A. Baker, j. Delany, A.
Dixon, William Ford, Nicholas Funk, Edward
Gather, William Henly F1odoardo Howard,
George w. Hardness, Enoch King, William Pet
tigrew, Louis A. Schneider, William Serrin, Will
Liam Stewart and A. Thompson.
House Carriage Guards-George Hensly and
John Knoblcck.
Suction Men-R. Bridget, John Bridget, Ed
mund Coolidge, John Coburn, French S. Evans
Agrecole Favier. Thomas F. Hardness, Charles
N. Hagrer. Richard Headly, William Heming
ton, William Herbert, John Keoron, John E.
Moran, Thomas p Morgan. Samuel Mcpherson
John Paradise, Charles Sioussa, B. H. Warning,
Lemuel Williams, list; w. H. Degges. Lemuel
Williams, I'd; James Westcott and Charles
Worthen
Keeper of the Apparatus Ferdinand Tur-
ton.
Honorary Members-French S. Evans, Charles
Calvert, C. w. GoldSborough, James Thompson,
N. Towson, Richard Smith, John Gadsby, B. o.
T3yloe Alexander Hunter, George Bonford.
Alexander Macomb, Francis Markoe, jr.; Will
Lam Turnbull, James Eakin, T. p. Andrews,
Robert Johnston, George Bender and M. St
Clair Clarke.
THE Franklin engine house, located on the
u south side Of D street between Twelfth
and Thirteenth, just west Of the old Van Ness
property is not nearly old o building as IS
the home of the Oldest Inhabitants-or the old
Union engine house-for the former, according
10 Sessford's Annals, was not erected until 1857,
and there can be no question about 1t, for Mr..
8essford in chronicling the improvements in
ehe second ward for that year says:
"A large brick culvert down Thirteenth
betW r
graded and graveled; also north L from Twelfth
30 Fourteenth streets; Franklin engine house
built on north d, between Twelfth and Thir
teenth streetS-it IS a neat substantial build
ing. with a large meeting room, ETC.; large adj
dition and Improvements to Epiphany Church
On G street.
Nor is it apparent that the Franklin COM
pany ever occupied this site before 1857 AS
evidence OF this conclusion, the writer has be-
fore him a map of the City OF Washington,
loaned him by James F. Duhamel, and
graved in 1850, upon which the Franklin
CINE house is shown about where the Shepherd
statue stands. and the city directory for that
year checks up exactly. And again, according
to John Sessford, find this statement in his
review OF improvements for the year 1856:
THE old Franklin engine house has been re-
moved and the angle inclosed by neat cast
iron railing"
Perhaps there is no question about the early
location of this company before it moved to D
Treasury Building on March 30, 1888, Wilhel-
mus Bogart Bryan says:
LAS there were night watchnen within
the building, so there were none on the outside,
or even at the Franklin fire engine house, on
the public space at the southeast corner of
Pennsylvania avenue and Fourteenth street
which had been built by public money, and
supplied with an engine from the same source,
for the protection of the Treasury and State
Buildings
GeFI,a
who volunteered their services to handle the
Mre apparatus were sound alseep in their beds
with no provision for being awakened. AS it
happened, a citizen, passing in the vicinity
saw the flames and apparently familiar with
the practice of the fire company, went TO Full
ler'S Hotel, on the corner opposite, and go. the
key of the engine house. He also secured pair
OF horses, PROBABLY from the hotel stables that
were in the rear, fronting on Fourteenth street.
and In 20 minutes after he first saw the fire.
he estimated the engine was at the building
the first to arrive"
(HARIES DICKENS, English novelist
~ stopped at what is now the willard or at
least its site, when lie visited this city in 1841
When he returned to England he wrote Amer
lean Notes for General Circulation" IN which
he gives brief description Of the engine house
as he saw it from his hotel window then Just
across the street. 1t was this: AN old lop-
sided, one-eyed kind of q wooden building that
looks like church. with flag staff as long
- itself sticking cut of the steeple, something
larger than a tea chcSt."
The Franklin. it would seem, succeeded the
Alert company in 1927, and for awhile occu-
pied its engine house on Thirteen and-a half
street before moving to Fourteenth and the
Avenue OF this the Intelligencer Of February
.. 1927. tells US: The Alert Fire Company held
q meeting ct the Iancasterian School room,
Fourteenth and G. streets, January 30, and
changed nc IN hat 0f ire
Company and c,ected the following officers