New York Gamewell Letters N-Z

[Box 2565]

Information Obtained From A Represenative List of Gamewell Installations in the United States as of 1941.    
 
Does anyone out there answer any of these questions? 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 and 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?
 :?:
 
New York Towns using Gamewell systems with names beginning with the letters N-Z
 
Newark
Newburgh
New Hartford
New Hyde Park
New Rochelle
New York Mills
Niagara Falls
North Tarrytown
North Tonawanda
Norwich
Norwood
Ogdensburg
Olean
Oneida
Oneonta
Ossining
Oswego
Palmyra
Patchogue
Peekskill
Pelham
Pelham Manor
Penn Yan
Perry
Plattsburg
Pleasantville
Port Chester
Port Jervis
Port Washington
Poughkeepsie See Photo Post Below
Potsdam
Red Hook
Rhinebeck
Rensaelaer
Richfield Springs
Rochester
Rockville Center
Rome
Rye
St Johnsville
Salamanca
Saranac Lakes
Saratoga
Scarsdale
Schenectady
Scotia
Seneca Falls
Skaneateles
Solvay
South Glen Falls
Spring Valley
Suffern
Syracuse
Tarrytown
Tonawanda
Troy
Tuckahoe
Tuxedo Park
Utica
Valley Stream
Walden
Warsaw
Warwick
Waterloo
Watertown
Watervliet
Watkins
Waverly
Wellsville
West Seneca
West Hempstead
Whitesboro
Whitehall
White Plaines
Yonkers

[Box 2565]

From Fire Engineering magazine November 12, 1930.

[District5]

This photo shows the alarm register at the Watervliet Arsenal.
 :mrgreen:

[District5]

Nice looking house gong on the wall!  This is an unknown station at New York City in 1905.

[Box 2565]

From an e-mail that I received.

I am a retired 911 dispatcher from the City of Rensselaer 7 miles south of Troy, New York.  Troy FD is dispatched by the Rensselaer County 911 center which is in Troy.  

Troy fd used to have their own fire alarm office in the Central fire house when it was on State Street and later on moved up State Street into the second floor of an old school.  

Troy has done away with street fire alarm boxes a long time ago.  Troy operates 5 engines, 2 trucks, a rescue squad, a boat, and 3 ambulances.  Troy FD operates ambulance service for the city.  The City of Troy averages about 15,000 fire and ems calls a year.  

The only place in Rensselaer County as well as in the entire 4 county region of the Captial District still employing street boxes is the City of Rensselaer where i worked.  Rensselaer has 4 fire houses with 4 engines and a truck.  Each fire house plus the police station have alarm bells and ticker tapes which tap out the box number.  On top of one of the fire houses is an air horn which alerts the volunteers of the box location and in the northern end of the city is an electronic whistle.  Rensselaer averages about 1400 fire and ems calls a year.  

Have a safe and wonderful holiday season.  I hope that this information was of interest to you.    

Tom Tiernan

[Box 2565]

A couple of different views of boxes in service with FDNY.

[Box 2565]

Most of the Syracuse stations I visited still had their house gong.  Here is the gong at Station #2.

[mlmummert]

Most of the Syracuse stations I visited still had their house gong.  Here is the gong at Station #2.

Is Syracuse still operating any municipal fire alarm equipment?

Matthew Mummert

[Box 2565]

The entire system has been removed.  The gongs remained at most of the stations.

[Box 2565]

This photo shows the watch desk at a station that is believed to be in the city of New York.

[Boxcom]

There are a bunch of Gamewell boxes on ebay that appear to have come from Rome, NY.  According to the desccription, the boxes were removed earlier this month (June 2007): 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Intact-GAMEWELL-FIRE-ALARM-STATION-Box-No-315_W0QQitemZ280128022445QQihZ018QQcategoryZ33766QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Above link is one of 7 or 8 boxes.

Bob K

[Box 2565]

A nice image of the alarm office in Manhattan. 

[grumpyff]

Pleasantville no longer has their Gamewell system. The pull boxes were removed some time in the late 70' early 80's.  Dept has two staions, only HQ still has a pull box out front.  The did maintain a loop of cable from HQ to DP Hayes Hose (which included the 3 schools)   This was discontinued in the mid 90's as the wire was often breaking apart in different spots.  The HQ had  an alarm register similar to the one shown in Watervliet.  This was removed at the same time as the loop, and dispatching was switched from Pleasantville PD to Westchester county (60 Control).   When the wire was in place we were able to use an intercom system between the two houses, and the PD.  Most of the boxes were disposed of.  I know one ended up in the Fire Patrol commpany room as a lamp (internal parts removed).  They may still have the ticker tape punch recorder in storage.

[Box 2565]

This photo was used in the book "Fire Alarm" and shows a watch desk in a New York, New York station.

[philter74]

Nyack, NY - still in service.  Around 116 boxes, 4 diaphone horns, and 8 firehouses with registers and gongs.