Central Fire Station, Norwich, CT, circa 1905

About this postcard

White horses and horse-drawn fire apparatus stand along the street outside Norwich's Central Fire Station, a red brick and stone building with a corner turret, steep slate roof, and a tall hose-drying tower. The tower let wet canvas hose hang free to dry, a common feature of stations built after steam pumpers and paid departments replaced volunteer bucket brigades. Norwich was a mill city at the head of the Thames River, and its central station housed the steamers and horse teams that answered downtown alarms. The turreted Romanesque building fits the municipal fire architecture of the period, when engine houses were built to be seen as well as used.