Pennsylvania Gamewell Systems

[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?  

Pennsylvania

Aliquippa
Allentown
Altoona
Ambridge
Archbald
Aspinwall
Bangor
Beaver Falls
Berwick
Bethlehem
Blakeley
Bloomsburg
Brackenridge
Braddock
Bradford
Bristol
Brownsville
Canonsburg
Carbondale
Carlisle
Chambersburg
Charleroi
Chester
Clairton
Clearfield
Coaldale
Coatesville
Connelsville
Corry
Dickson City
Dormont
Dunmore
Duquense
Easton
East Pittsburgh
East Stroudsburg
Ebensburg
Edgewood
Edwardsville
Elizabethtown
Ellwood City
Emmaus  System Still In Service  Read the reply about Emmaus.
Erie  System Still In Service
Etna
Ford City
Forty Fort
Fountain Hill
Frackville
Franklin
Freeland
Gallitzen
Greensburg
Hanover  System Still In Service
Harrisburg
Hazelton
Homestead
Honesdale
Hughestown
Jeannette
Jessup
Johnstown
Kane
Kennet Square
Kingston
Kittanning
Kutztown
Lancaster
Lansford
Larksville
Lebanon
Lemoyne
Lewisburg
Mahanoy City
McDonald
McKeesport
Meadville
Mifflinburg
Millvale
Minersburg
Monongahela City
Mt Carmel
Mt Pleasant
Naticoke
Natrona
Nazareth
New Castle
New Kensington
Norristown
Northampton
North Braddock
North East
Oil City
Old Forge
Olyphant
Parsona
Peckville
Pen Argyl
Philadelphia
Philipsburg
Phoenixville
Pitcairn
Pittsburgh  See Other Posts For 2 Photos of the Fire Alarm Office!System Removed
Pittston
Plains
Pleasant Valley
Plymouth
Pottstown
Pottsville  System Still In Service  Read the reply about Pottsville.
Rankin
Reading
Ridgeway
Rochester
Scottdale
Scranton
Sewickley
Shamokin
Sharon
Sharpsburg
Shenandoah
Shickshinny
Souderton
South Fork
South Greensburg
Southwest Greensburg
Spring Grove
St Clair
St Marys
Steelton
Stroudsburg
Summit Hill
Sunbury
Susquehanna
Swissvale
Tamaqua
Tarentum
Taylor
Throop
Titusville
Towanda
Turtle Creek
Union City
Uniontown
Vandergrift
Warren
Washington
West Chester
West Homestead
West Newton
West Pittston
West Reading
West York Borough  System Still In Service
Wilkesview
Wilkes-Barre
Wilkinsburg
Williamsport
Windber
York  See the York PA Fire Alarm Switchboard  System Still In Service

[Box 2565]

This community in the Southwestern part of the state maintains a Gamewell alarm system.  Most boxes are located at commercial, industrial, or institutions such as Washington ' Jefferson College.

The W.F.D. has 2 stations and each is equipped with a register and take up reel with a board above that displays the box locations.  This is the alarm set-up at Station 1.

[uvfr]

I can answer for a few of the towns in SW PA.  Braddock, Duquesne, East Pittsburgh, McKeesport, North Braddock, Swissvale, Trafford, Turtle Creek, Wilkinsburg, and Wilmerding no longer have their systems.  I can remember seeing piles of boxes in the boro building garages in Braddock and Wilmerding in the mid and late 1980s, but I don't know where they are now.  Trafford donates a few boxes each year for a local charity auction- when I hear anything about it I'll post a message.  In East Pittsburgh, the gong and register are still in the fire station (as far as I know.)  McKeesport's system was taken down in the late 80s-early 90s; whereabouts of components unknown.

Greensburg and Pitcairn still use their systems.  Greensburg's is active and well-maintained and still has the original Diaphones in use at their stations.  If you've never heard a Diaphone activate you don't know what you're missing!  Pitcairn's system is in fairly bad shape; I don't know if it even still works, but all of the boxes are still on the poles.  There's a set of air horns on fire station #2 and station #1 has a gong and register.

[Erie_Gamewell]

The City of Erie and the City of Corry still have their systems up and running. The city of corry still has the boxes made before the herculite model up on their poles. Lawrence Park took their boxes down around 1992 ?  I believe.

[Box 2565]

Box 555 in Washington, Pennsylvania is located at Fire Station 1.

[Box 2565]

Uniontown has removed their alarm system, however they still have this nice display of items at Station 1.

The 2 boards to the left list the box locations for Uniontown.  To the right of the alarm assignment lists is a Gamewell gong and then a small size Gamewell cottage style alarm box.

[Box 2565]

Some fire alarm systems are small in scale.  This card that is dated 1962 shows the locations of the 28 alarm boxes that made up the fire alarm system in Coatesville.

[Anonymous]

Sunbury Pa. still has boxes. At the police station they also have a transmitter with wheels for all the boxes and special alarms(ie: out of town, fire out, river rescue, etc). Fire Halls have bells and punch register. Boxes are transmitted slow time and the box number is blown on air horns located in the north end of town at Rescue Hose Co. and in the south end of town at the city garage. The county now dispatches the department. The horns are now used only for building fires in the city.When a call for a building comes in to the dispatcher they dispatch it to pagers and call the police who then transmit it over the box circuits. If a box is pulled the police call the county who then page it out over the radio.

[Box 2565]

Written on the back of this photo is: 'John Lane sends out a box.'  The clock is similar in styling to a Gamewell Umbria clock and even more reminiscent of an E. Howard fire alarm clock that was recently pictured on eBay.  Can anyone identify this particular timepiece?

[Box 2565]

The attached photo looks to be 1950's vintage. The note on the back of the photo indicates that the dispatchers shown are Mr. Lewellyn (standing), Mr. Ehrhard (at the switchboard), and Mr. Hanlon (at the radio).

[magicman]

The system in Ford City was removed back in the late 80's or so.  
Unfortunately, the town sold the boxes for $5.00 each but to the best of my knowledge, NONE of the fire department members got any of them.  ':(
The department still has their register behind glass in their meeting area. I don't know what happened to the one at the county dispatch center.

[Box 2565]

Certainly an unusual alarm installation is this set of back-to-back boxes on 1 pedestal in Washington.  The box numbers are #945 (Administration Building) and #946 (Old Main) on Lincoln Avenue in the grounds of Washington & Jefferson College.

[WEFR15]

Franklin Fire Company, Chambersburg, PA has their old Gamewell system in the small museum in their station.   They are thinking about hooking it up and trying to get it functional again.

[Box 2565]

I've received several replies on the forums at The Watch Desk regarding this topic.

From Goat 257: "Greensburg and Jeannette in Westmoreland County still have Gamewell street boxes. Greensburg's appears to be in excellent shape from what I can tell, but Jeannette's looks pretty bad."

From EMDman: "They dont have any still around and if they do they were stolen. Pitcairn still has them in service....so as far as around here thats all."

From Proud 616: "The boroughs of Scalp Level and Paint had a Gamewell system in service until the mid 70's. Today, one box (box 111) remains in service outside the fire station. The control panel is also still in service to allow this one box to activate the station's siren. The recorder, gongs, and box locater board are all on display at the station. The boxes are mostly gone; most being scrapped by the local electric utility when the poles they were attached to were replaced. I was fortunate enough to recover box 113 from an old pole before it was carted off to the dump.

This system was one of the smaller installations with about 30 boxes in less than a 2 square mile area serving a population of 3,000 at its height. The Gamewell system replaced an earlier Federal system first installed in the 1920's."

[Box 2565]

This photo, from 1957, shows the new dispatch area and Gamewell system at Lancaster.