The Whiting Fire Department’s Early Years

John Hmurovic
December 2019

The Whiting Fire Department had a reason to be proud. They just got a pair of dappled gray horses, which cost the city $300. One week after the purchase, on an evening in June of 1900, the fire alarm sounded. The horses were quickly hitched to the fire wagon. Out they dashed from the station. With the clip-clop of their hooves, accompanied by the clang-clang of the bells on the fire wagon, they had everyone’s attention.

Back then, the fire station was located on the corner of White Oak and Fischrupp. The horses and fire wagon headed north from the station to 119th Street and turned left. People walking along the city’s main street stopped to watch as the horses started a run. City Councilman E. E. Sprague was sitting up front with the driver. Soon after they passed Pennsylvania Avenue, Sprague took the long-lash whip that was in his hand and used it on the galloping horses. Immediately, everything went wrong.

Instead of going straight down the center of the street, the team of horses ran slightly to the right. They were headed directly toward a light pole on the corner of 119th and New York, where the Post Office is currently located. The driver lost control. The horse on the left suddenly turned to the left to avoid the pole, while the horse on the right turned to the right. Both horses cleared the pole. The wagon did not.

Upon impact, the seven firefighters and one city councilman on board flew forward. An eyewitness said it was like they were shot out of the mouth of a long-barreled shotgun. Councilman Sprague hit the ground, landing between the two horses. For several seconds, some spectators thought he was dead. He escaped with just a leg injury. The seven firefighters received bad bruises, but no serious injuries. The wagon was damaged; the light pole destroyed.

A lot has changed in Whiting’s fire-fighting efforts since those days. The first motorized fire truck arrived in 1912, and soon the horses were sent out to pasture. That didn’t stop accidents from happening. In February 1920, the city’s firefighters responded to an alarm at the school on Oliver Street. Leaving the station on White Oak and turning left onto 119th Street, the fire truck was hit from behind by a streetcar. Fireman Leslie Miles was standing on the back of the fire truck. The collision knocked him to the ground. He suffered a severe scalp injury and hurt his leg. Other firemen sustained injuries, and some of the streetcar passengers were slightly injured. The alarm at the school turned out to be a false one.

Besides trucks replacing horses, there were other significant changes in the fire department in the early part of the last century. By 1920, all firefighters in Whiting were paid employees of the city. That wasn’t the case in 1900. The city was protected by an all-volunteer fire department until 1914.

Another major change involved the fire station. In the city’s early years, the volunteer firefighters relied on hose houses. Those structures housed the equipment needed to fight fires. They were in various parts of the city. There was one, for instance, at the southeast corner of Ohio Avenue at Pennsylvania Avenue. There was another at northwest corner of 119th and Front Street, adjacent to the railroad tracks.

In 1899, however, the city built its first fire house, on the southeast corner of White Oak and Fischrupp. It was more than just a fire house, however. The fire department shared the lower level with the police department and the town jail. Upstairs were the offices of the city clerk-treasurer, and city attorney, as well as a city council meeting room. It was called the Town Hall, and it cost $10,000 to build. It “is a beauty,” the newspaper said, “finished inside with hard maple and the walls are beautifully frescoed and painted.”

When the cornerstone was laid, a brass box was inserted into it. Inside that box was a copy of Whiting’s two newspapers, names of city officials and personal cards of three of them, and a ticket to a reception held in Whiting to welcome home the soldiers who fought in the recently ended Spanish-American War.

By 1920, two decades after the Town Hall was built, the population of Whiting had tripled. The building that seemed so grand in 1899, was far too small by the 1920s. Numerous efforts were made to replace it. In 1927, for instance, there was a plan to build a new City Hall on the corner of 119th and New York, where the Post Office now stands. A frame house was on that lot when the city purchased it. The plan called for tearing it down, and building a two-story structure to house city offices and the police department. Those plans never developed, and through the 1930s, the city continued to operate out of the crowded building at White Oak and Fischrupp.

The first relief came in 1942, when the city’s offices moved into their current location on 119th Street, just east of New York Avenue. The new City Hall building was actually an old building. It was originally a church, which was then converted into an armory for the National Guard. The Guard initially leased space in the building to the city. In 1955, the move was made permanent when the city purchased the building from the National Guard.

The fire department, however, remained at the old Town Hall. In the years that followed, the debate raged on about building a new fire station. The old building was constructed in the horse and wagon days, and was inadequate to house the larger, motorized fire trucks. It was also inadequate to house the firefighters. When the station at White Oak and Fischrupp was built in 1899, the city had an all-volunteer fire department, whose members stayed at home and responded to alarms. Gradually, that started to change in the early 1900s.

By 1907, the city had two paid firefighters always on duty, and twenty-five volunteers who were paid for each fire they fought. The number of paid firefighters grew over time. Firefighters worked a 24-hour shift, every other day. But the old fire station didn’t have a place for them to sleep. They improvised by putting cots in the garage, sleeping next to the fire trucks.

In 1959, building a new police-fire station was a campaign issue in the race for mayor. Some, such as Whiting attorney Charles Perel were against a new building. Perel was the city attorney in 1927, when there was a major effort to build a new City Hall at 119th and New York. In 1927, the city’s population was growing, but by the 1950s, it was in decline. Because of that, when the debate raged in 1962, about the need for a new station, Perel was against it. The reason was simple: “There are progressively fewer residents to serve,” he said, quoted in an article in the Hammond Times.

Whiting Mayor Mary Bercik didn’t agree with that argument. The old fire station, built in 1899, was antiquated, she replied, and even the state fire marshal condemned it as unsafe. It was her intention to follow through on a campaign promise to build a new station, and in 1962, she succeeded. The new combination police-fire station, located at Schrage and Fischrupp, had its grand opening early in 1963, and still serves the community. Immaculate Conception parish was interested in buying the old fire station and converting it into a recreation center. Those plans fell through and the building was demolished. Gone was the city’s largest reminder of its early firefighting history.

But there is one very public reminder which remains. Everyone who lives in Whiting has probably passed it hundreds of times. Yet, it’s a safe guess that few know the history behind the bell that sits at the corner of Schrage and Fischrupp Avenues.

According to a story written by Alexander Kompier in 1992, which appeared in the newsletter of the Whiting-Robertsdale Historical Society, the bell came to Whiting in 1899, and was initially used as a school bell at the city’s new kindergarten building. It cost $210. It only stayed there for a short time. A bell was needed at the new City Hall, and the school board agreed to give it to the city. It was installed in the bell tower. Besides being used for fire emergencies, it was also rung daily at 9 P.M., to remind anyone under the age of sixteen that it was curfew time and they needed to be in their homes.

It was also used whenever a firefighter passed away. It was a ritual to have the funeral cortege pass by the fire station as the bell tolled in honor of the deceased. When former Fire Chief Clyde Lampman died in 1946, for instance, the task of tolling the bell fell to rookie firefighter John Kostolnick, who was in the early stages of a career that later saw him become fire chief.

Today, the bell sits on the corner, held in place by two brick pillars. The names of firemen who have served the city are displayed on one of the pillars. Just as in 1899, when mementos were left in the cornerstone of the old station, the brick pillars also contain mementos left by firefighters in 1962. Those include photos of the firefighters, clippings about the city’s major fires up to that time, and the charter and bylaws of Whiting Firefighters Association Local 969.