At the End.....Or Not???

This past weekend I got to the last town in Western Mass on my list, my home town of Northampton. I had wanted to save it for last mainly because I reasoned it would have been the easiest one to do, and would be a good ending to this project. Unfortunately, I am still getting the runaround from the base at Barnes in Westfield, so this post isn't really the end. Thanks to the great Asst Chief Wood at Westover, I was able to contact the Chief at Barnes directly, who said "no problem". However, it has to be approved by the Public Affairs office at the base first. Two emails and one phone message later and I still haven't heard back from the base. Never fear, I'm not giving up, and am still trying. I have one friend who can go to the PX there, so I'm hoping to bribe her into taking me along so I can do a drive-by shoot(sorry bad phrasing here) of the firehouse. If that fails, a relative has a friend who is married to a Colonel there, (not quite six degrees of separation but pretty close!) that I might be able to beg for assistance. So it is a waiting game to see how it all shakes out at this point. Regardless, on to the firehouses in Northampton. The first stop was at the Florence station, located on Maple Street. Florence is a section of Northampton, and the locals call it the Village of Florence-hey it has its own zip code after all right? I used to live in the center, and after a few months didn't even jump when the engines came racing down the street blaring their sirens on route to a call. 

About two blocks south of Florence, you drive by a small little park, Trinity Park to be precise, and if you take a moment to stop and walk through it, you will spot the memorial for firefighters there on the corner.

The new firehouse in town is located down on King Street, and is a much larger location than the old firehouse previously located downtown. The complex is pretty immense, so I shot both from the front and side views.

Front view-from King Street

Side View of Firehouse

Just inside the firehouse, you will see one of the older apparatus that once was used in town. 

Just outside of the firehouse,
one of the old bells can be located on the side near the entrance.

Being so close to the Connecticut River, the department also has a fire boat used for water rescues, stored here at the King Street location. 

\

New flags on the grills were a treat to see, the only other town I have seen during my travels that has a grill like this one was in Dalton. Northampton has two, but this is the more impressive grill with more of a full flag motif.

The vehicle below is owned by the state, and currently housed here in town, used for large or long term fire emergencies.There are a few on staff at the department here who are trained for this vehicle in particular.

Seal on the floor inside firehouse

To the left, you will see the portable units for refilling air tanks built right into the emergency vehicles.

Within the firehouse,
visitors can also see the department patch board as well as the fire pole. The flaps(so no accidental drops!) open when weight is placed on the pole. And in case anyone is wondering, no I did not slide down it.(Although I probably should have asked to!)



Huge thank you to Jared Kajka for the visit here at the King Street firehouse!

I will still update this blog if I can get to Barnes and do the firehouse there, but after I breathed a sigh of relief that this project was finally finished, I realized it really isn't over at this point. I have met so many people and talked with them about this project, that I realize that I need to keep working on and widen its range more. Plans for a book of all of the photographs are at the top of the list, along with expanding to include the rest of the state and potentially all of New England are in the works. People are really enthusiastic and excited(incredibly some even more than I am!) about this project, and have given me many suggestions and much encouragement to continue on with it. For me, this project started with a desire to see more of the area that I have lived my entire life in, and the admiration I have for the crews who go out every day to answer a call. I certainly experienced more dirt roads in the past few months than I think I ever have before! This area has an incredible amount of history, and much more wide open spaces than I ever thought it did, as well as many areas I had never traveled to. The thrill of discovering new places played a big part in this project, as well as discovering how similar and different firehouses across the region can be. One added bonus, if I ever run into problems while traveling in the area and need emergency assistance, I know exactly where each and every firehouse is in every town here! While I don't know specifically each and every person that has taken the time to discover and read this blog, I do know that it has been read by individuals in countries near and far, so a huge thank you to the readers from the following areas who have explored it as of this writing:

Bermuda, France, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and of course, the United States.

Not too bad for a little blog that isn't promoted hmm?

Regardless, keep checking back to the blog and I promise to update followers on the next phase of this project as it unfolds.

Thanks to my "big brother" Bill, for pushing and encouraging me with this project, and helping me to scream at the GPS when it was telling us to be in the wrong place from where we wanted to be. One of the best road trip pals ever, except when you were laughing at me about my "damn dirt road" phobias. I still will detour miles out of the way in order to avoid driving on them. My car is still trying to recover from the traumas I inflicted.

And now for something completely different........

One of my friends took the time on his vacation to photograph and send me photos of firehouses when he wasn't getting drunk on wine in France or taking "selfies" at the Eiffel Tower. Thanks Paul for sending them to me so that I could share them here!

First- a truck-in traffic of course!

You can just see part of the engine bays from this shot

A fuller view of the firehouse bays in this shot

Pretty neat to view this through the alleyway

It wouldn't be right for me not to include Paul and his "selfie" at the Eiffel Tower after the photos he took for me. Thanks Paul! <grin>

And I leave you now with one incredibly important message-if you hear or see an emergency truck-PULL OVER and let them get past you-that extra minute of trying to maneuver around your vehicle could make a difference to someone. 

Stay safe and enjoy life readers!

Final Run in the Berkshires

Today was a beautiful day to finish up the lower southwest corner of the state, and I was driving solo on this trip. I headed up the Mass Turnpike to the first stop in the town of Lee, about a 45 minute drive from the interstate. I had two listings for Lee, both within the same block, but discovered when I arrived that there was only one firehouse in town, on Main Street. (FYI-to google maps-there is no station on Railroad Street!) I was pleased with this first stop as the firehouse there I thought looked particularly interesting.

 

Another firehouse mailbox!

Just behind and next door to the firehouse is the town EMS location, and across the street there were two pretty neat looking fire trucks from other towns parked there as well. There is a second station in South Lee, but more on that later.

Literally a brush truck! Note the apparatus in the rear of Forest 1

 But those weren't the only neat vehicles in Lee. Below see two of the other trucks parked across the street from the EMS services in town.

   

  The next stop had me heading northwest to the town of Lenox, an area I have become pretty familiar with in the last year or so, after all, Ventfort Hall is just down the street. I was easily able to find the firehouse there pretty quickly on Walker Street. This firehouse is located behind the town office building, and for some reason, the downtown area was really busy. Parking was at a premium today.

     After Lenox, it was off to the town of Hancock, and I was dismayed that I had to go north through part of Pittsfield (again!) to get to the south station. The south station is located on Route 20, and is just a half mile west of the Hancock Shaker Village. Judging from the amount of vehicles in the parking lot there, definitely a high spot on the tourist attraction list. I didn't have much time to sightsee the area today, so I had to pass on a stop there. Hancock also has a north fire station, located more towards the towns of New Ashford and Adams, which I had taken photos of on a previous visit to the area on Sept 4th.

Hancock Station 1- Hancock Road

Hancock Station 2-Route 20, Lebanon Mt Road

     After the second station, it was time to head southbound a bit to the town of Richmond, where the firehouse is located on a newer road, aptly named Firehouse Lane. Luckily, it was visible right off the main route into town, as my borrowed GPS didn't have that particular road listed. This station is next to other town department services, and is a great looking building, especially in the setting sun.

     The town of West Stockbridge was next on the list, and the firehouse is located right on Albany Road.

     Continuing southeast, the town of Stockbridge came along next, where the firehouse is located on East Street.

I absolutely loved this firehouse. It has a great long driveway leading up a slope to it, with old wrought iron gates and cement pillars at the entrance. Even better, plenty of places for me to park at this firehouse!

The firehouse here also has a great memorial on the front side of the building.

The next town, Great Barrington, posed quite a challenge for me. I lost a lot of time trying to get from one firehouse to another, as the town has two stations. I still have no idea what was going on along Main Street today, but it took me about a half an hour to travel about 2 miles. Ridiculousness. The first firehouse is located on State Road. And may I state that this is a positively HUGE firehouse. 

It doesn't look that large from the above shot, but to give you an idea of perspective, here is a shot from just the front bay doors below.

I won't even mention that there are side and back bay doors as well at this firehouse! I especially liked the garden memorial area in the front that utilized the old firehose wheel apparatus.  If you enter into the far right of the building, you can view a real antique fire engine. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to shoot photos of that one-you will have to go check it out on your own. However, in the rear of the firehouse I did come across one more piece of equipment, that unfortunately in this day and age is needed.

    The second firehouse is on Castle Street, and right off the main intersection of downtown across from the town hall offices.

This firehouse was the worst to get to with the traffic this afternoon. Unfortunately all the side streets I could have taken instead to get to it were all dead ends, so I suffered through some more stop and go traffic on the way. But I made it!

   

After those two were checked off the list, it was time to travel a little bit more west towards the border towards New York, and get to the town of Alford. The station here is located on North Egremont Road.

For the record, I would just like to make it perfectly clear to anyone who cares about accuracy, every reference I had for this firehouse stated it was at 59 North Egremont Road. As you can see from the address on the firehouse signpost. Those references were WRONG!  59 does not mean 86!
            Where #59 should be-there are woods!

  Continuing south from Alford, the next stop was to the town of Egremont. I discovered here that there are TWO firehouses, where I only had one listed. Luckily I drove right by the first one by happy accident, so I was able to stop and get some shots of this first station, located next to the town police department. You can see from the front view of the building why I drove by and almost missed this one.

If it wasn't for the sign out front, I would have thought it was just a residental address. Wouldn't you have?


                              

   Below is a side view of the firehouse

    The second firehouse is located right along Main Street.

    Helpful hint for anyone traveling out that way, the speed  

limit is 35mph and the town police have a great parking spot in front of the second firehouse to watch you travel by, hopefully doing the speed limit! 

     It was time to head south to the next stop in the town of Sheffield. If you travel along Sheffield road to head to where the firehouse is located, you pass by a little bit of American history. (Not that all of New England isn't central to quite a bit of our country's early history!)

Just where the Appalachian trail crosses Sheffield Road, there is a marker to note where the last battle of Shay's Rebellion was fought. ( If you don't know what this was all about-look it up in your history textbooks) The marker itself IS crooked, so no error here in photographing it on my part.

 After that quick stop on the edge of a cornfield for the marker, I continued heading down towards the back end of Depot Square in Sheffield. The sun was starting to set more at this point, so I wasn't too happy with the shadows cast on the firehouse from the surrounding trees. But I did the best that I could with what I had to work with. I was kicking myself for not starting this run earlier in the day. Somehow I think my students wouldn't have minded me cancelling classes on a Friday for this.

   There is a small memorial here in the front      
     corner of the Sheffield firehouse as well. 


    

 Continuing Eastbound, the New Marlborough firehouse was next on the list, but is located in the town of Southfield. At least the GPS was able to get me there without any trouble-a first for the day today on that account!

This location is pretty interesting, as there is a newer firehouse right next to the older volunteer firehouse. I would love to find out the story about that one at some point.

However, I spoke too soon on the GPS not failing me. The next town on the list was Monterey. The GPS did a fine job getting me on the road towards the firehouse on Main Road, for the first few miles. If you have read any of the earlier posts in this blog, it isn't hard to figure out what is coming up next in this narrative.

DDR alert!

Yep, a Damn Dirt Road.

 I sighed when I saw the line on the route begin to go from wide to small on the GPS screen. I also began saying a bunch of other things after that however, that I won't repeat for my readers here. 

For 3.7 miles.

The first mile and a half was easy as pie though. The road was wide and well graded, and populated with houses the entire way. I thought, not too bad if the rest of the way is like this. I hit mile 2 and it began to be not so much fun. I should have known when the road narrowed and led into a more forested area that it would get hairy. Sorry to the guy in the truck that was coming the other way at that point, I just wasn't going to hug the ditch. Not in my vehicle which has no capability of getting unstuck if I drove it into said ditch.

 You were driving a truck after all-you can get yourself unstuck no problem, unlike little old me in a Camry. Right? All good.

   After another half a mile, I crossed a real, genuine, man-made steel bridge, which made me feel better about this particular route. Civilization at its finest! One mile left to go and I was in the home stretch. However, the next mile got worse. I bottomed out a couple of times along the rocks, but it was too late to turn back, never mind that there was no room to turn back at this point in the game.The local wildlife had to have heard me coming, since I had the windows down and was screaming out loud at the stupid road, stupid hills, stupid trees, stupid rocks, stupid woods, and everything in my path that I determined to be stupid. I did find quite a bit of things to yell at for that last mile.

Luckily, the next turn on the GPS got me to a paved road, and I was able to relax and unclench my stomach and butt muscles for the rest of the ride to the Monterey firehouse.

Pretty good looking sign out in front of the firehouse by the way!

     The last stop, or so I thought anyway, of the day was at the town of Tyringham. Easy to get to on the town's Main Road, I was able to shoot photos of this firehouse without too much interference from the setting sun. You know you're in a hilltown though when across the street are three octogenerians enjoying the afternoon sitting outside on their front porch. I probably gave them some excitement in their day by saying hello to them. They were certainly having fun wondering what I was doing with my camera at the firehouse.

It was time to head back north towards Lee so I could jump back on the Turnpike to head east towards home. Unfortunately, there was a nice road detour that took me about 3 miles out of my way to get around. Since the signs said "Road Closed-local traffic only", I figured not to press my luck on more bad roads and took the marked detour-which wasn't a DDR!. Luckily for me I took the detour, as when I came out to the main road to continue on, I happened to look towards my left and saw......

 A shiny red engine out in front of a firehouse! 

Of course, a firehouse that didn't show up on my original route listings. So I hung a left, and discovered I was at the second Lee station, technically in South Lee. Hmmm....another station for me to tell the state directory listings they omitted. Makes me wonder if I missed any more along the way. Some of the crew were out washing the trucks, so you have firefighters in action on this photo. Well, the daughter of one of the firefighters anyway. She was doing a great job!

The truck all spiffed up and drying in the sun

One more hour to go to travel towards home, and I was exhausted from the five hours I had already logged in. Another short run to the two firehouses in my hometown, and hopefully a trip to the base at Barnes in Westfield, and this project is almost completed. Stay tuned!