Towns with Gamewell Systems Tennessee-Texas-Utah

[Box 2565]

The caption on this postcard states "Houston Fire Alarm Building, Houston, Texas".

The description on the back reads:
Located in Houston's new Civic Center and constructed in 1938, this building has received international acclaim as an outstanding example of modern contemporary architecture.  In it culminates the vast netowrk of City Automatic Electric Fire Alarm System.

This room located on an intermediate upper level in the building contains the many electric panel boards of the Automatic Fire Alarm System  Sufficient extra space is allowed for the systems expansion to serve population of 1,000,000 people.



The census of 2000 shows the population of Houston to be 1,953,631!  Want to know what kind of incidents the HFD is responding to right now?  Click on the link for current Houston Fire Department Active Incidents.

[Box 2565]

Information Copied From A Represenative List of Gamewell Installations in the United States as of 1941.  
   
If you can answer any of the following questions, please post a reply! Which towns still use their street box system?  How many boxes are in the system and are gongs still used in the fire houses?    
     
If the system has been removed, when was the system discontinued? What became of the fire alarm boxes, registers, and gongs? Are any of these items still owned by the town where they could potentially be sold to collectors?   Have any of the items been kept for display in a museum or station?  

Tennessee

Chattanooga
Cleveland
Columbia
Harriman
Knoxville
Memphis
Nashville

Texas

Abiliene
Amarillo
Beuamont
Breckenridge
Brownsville
Corpus Christi
Dallas
Del Rio
Denison
Edinburg
El Paso
Fort Worth
Galveston
Houston        See the HFD Fire Alarm Office!
Longview
Lufkin
Marlin
Orange
Port Arthur
San Angelo
San Antonio
Sherman
Temple
Texarkana
Victoria
Waco
Wichita Falls

Utah

Ogden  See Reply Below
Provo
Salt Lake City  See Information Below

[Box 2565]

From the Salt Lake City Fire Dept. history.

1889 - The Gaynor system was the first fire alarm system placed in service in Salt Lake City. The first alarm was transmitted from Box 52 at Third Avenue and "F" Street for a chimney fire.

[Box 2565]

I received an email from Greg Chamberlain (GregChamberlain@ci.ogden.ut.us) of the Ogden Fire Dept.  Greg says that the Ogden system had been removed prior to 1983 and everything has been disposed of.  Another one bites the dust......

[Jim Rasmussen]

TO:  Steve Hagy

Steve,

Sorry, I can be of little help to you in this matter other than to tell you I know Houston no longer has an active Gamewell system in place, neither does Galveston, to the best of my knowledge.  I do not recall seeing any corner street boxes when visiting San Antonio either.

The Houston Fire Department Museum has a few boxes and a small section of the old central alarm office's alarm board.  No one at the museum knows didilly about fire alarm equipment, how it works or how to wire it up to work.  I volunteered to do it but curator declined offer for whatever reason(?).

Try contacting Capt. Tom McDonald, HFD who up to 8 months ago had been assigned to the HFD Fire Alarm office for a number of years.  Tom's email address is <TMcFire@aol.com> .  There are few individuals in our area who even know what an old fire alarm system is or how it workded.  Over the past couple years I've sold off most all the fire alarm equipment I had collected over a period of 25 years.

Sorry I can't be of any more help to you.

Jim Rasmussen

[District5]

A fire alarm demonstration at Abilene, Texas.

[Box 2565]

This screen shows an alarm assignment in Houston.  The days of running cards are gone for most fire departments.  While visiting last week I completely forgot to find out if the HFD alarm office was still in the building shown previously in this topic!

[Box 2565]

Beaumont has a pair of these pedestals in front of Station #1 for use as lights.  Each is equipped with a Gamewell street box (the system has been removed) and also a Gamewell flashing light controller just below the lamp.

The pedestals themselves were manufactured locally.  Each has the name "Boykin Machine Supply Co" cast into the base.  There is also a Maltese cross design cast on the sides of the column.

[PFD1]

When I was in Beaumont in the mid-90's they still had street boxes on the corners. That alarm box at the central station had been disconnected, but then reconnected because apparently someone tried to pull it for an alarm and it didn't sound. Central station had a wood cased house gong that had been gutted and a 10" turtle gong mounted too it. They had some very old cast iron boxes on the street, with key guards and the alarm office had Gamewell receiving equipment, but the more modern type. If I can get it to work, I'll scan my pictures and post them.

[PFD1]

Beaumont street box. April, 1993.

[PFD1]

Beaumont central station house gong.

[mlmummert]

One interesting thing about the photo of the Beaumont street box is that you can see that the old box had just been reinstalled on a new utility pole.  The old pole with the red paint is still visible next to it.

Matthew Mummert

[Box 2565]

Amarillo, Texas - South Polk Street & Southeast 9th Avenue
Notice that the pedestal is painted green.

[Box 2565]

This scene is on Commercial Street in Salt Lake City, Utah.  The photo features a Gamewell alarm box and was taken on 09-23-09.

[Box 2565]

Houston
Box 4181 - Louisiana & McCowen
Steve Hagy photo.