Stop 16 – The 1872 City Hall and Engine House

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THE ENGINE HOUSE

Until nineteen-oh-six, the city's three fire companies were completely independent. Each had its own engine house, its own equipment, and its own men.

In eighteen seventy-two, the city built its first combined City Hall and Engine House, on Sixth Street between First Avenue and Central Avenue. It housed the steam engines, first the eighteen sixty-eight R. H. Dickey and later the eighteen eighty-four H. F. Cady.

In nineteen-oh-six, the companies merged to become the Nebraska City Volunteer Fire Department, and most of the equipment moved into the City Hall and Engine House. The Great Western Fire Company kept its own engine house and meeting hall farther west on Central Avenue.

The small hose cart on display is believed to have been used at the old Nebraska State School for the Blind, before nineteen hundred.

TOURNAMENTS AND CONVENTIONS

With the conventions came competitions, and the two big events were the ladder race and the hose cart race.

In eighteen eighty-four, the Otoe Hook and Ladder Company formed a running team. In the ladder race, fifteen men pulled the ladder wagon. Eight wore harnesses, two steered by the tongue, and three ran alongside. At the finish, they threw a thirty-six-foot ladder up against a wall, and the climber raced to the top against the clock.

This team got very good. From eighteen eighty-seven to eighteen ninety-one, it took first prize at every firemen's meet in Iowa and Nebraska, and eastern newspapers called its members the "Champions of the World." Twice, the team tied the record for a fifty-yard run and a thirty-six-foot ladder climb. Its climber, Lewis Giittinger, held the world record of seven and two-fifths seconds.

Nebraska City Fire Company Number One ran the hose teams. Five men raced a hose cart, hooked the hose to a hydrant, and fastened on a nozzle. When the water came through, the fifth man aimed it at a target to finish the race.