East Dedham Fire Station

The East Dedham Fire House originally Hose Company No. 3 was built by the Town of Dedham in 1897. The building is significant as the earliest fire station in the town still being used for its original purpose. The basement still contains stalls for the horses used to pull the early fire engines. Dedham has a telegraph fire alarm system, hard wired throughout the entire town with copper cable to wired boxes. The wired boxes have a lever when pulled, will send a signal to each fire station in Dedham identifying the location of the fire. On the inside wall to the left of the garage doors hang the boards with all the call locations for the call boxes alerting the firemen to the location of a fire when the tab on the call box is pulled. A fire whistle is sounded so that each firemen and citizen with the help of the location list can identify where a fire is located in Dedham.

Dedham citizens began organizing to fight fires in 1800 when several residents living in what was then the commercial center of Dedham (Connecticut Corner), got together to purchase a fire engine by subscription. This first engine named “Hero No. 1” was built by Paul Revere, who served as fire warden in neighboring Boston in 1775 and built hand pumped fire engines. The Dedham Fire Society was formed in 1829 to help remove furniture and personal effects from burning homes. Membership included the most influential men in town and their meetings were held at various taverns throughout Dedham. In 1846 the town voted to raise $2500 for the erection of engine houses and for placing the Fire Department in a more efficient state for service. The following year an engine house was built as at this time in the Mill Village (near this location) on Milton Street near the Stone Mill establishing Hose No. 3. [1]  

The textile mills and densely built houses in Mill Village / East Dedham were a challenge for the firemen. An article in The Boston Globe from March 3, 1880 detailed how the three-story building at Merchant’s Dye House’s interior was gutted due to a fire that spread quickly through the structure. Niagara No. 3 responded, but the building was severely damaged at great expense to the company. [2]

The history of the current building starts with an article in The Boston Globe stating that a building committee was appointed on September 16, 1895 to purchase land on Bussey Street owned by Edgar Harding for $3000. They set aside $300 to move the old engine house from Milton Street to the Bussey Street site, but that idea seemed to have been short-lived. At the Dedham Town meeting in April of 1896, 7,000 residents voted to build a brick engine house in East Dedham.[3] A building committee was appointed with W. C. Williams as Chair on June 15, 1896 and proposals for a brick engine house were placed in the Boston Globe. In October of the same year, the same advertisement was run a second time with one exception; this time it called for completion of a wooden engine house in East Dedham.[4] An article in The Boston Globe published on December 09, 1896 stated that work on the new engine house was progressing rapidly. The following June, the Globe reported that the house was near completion and that fixtures from the old Engine House on Milton Street were being removed and replaced in the new structure. The town had approved spending of another $300 dollars to complete this task in addition to grading the lot and furnishing the house. [5]

This fire station is significant as the earliest fire station in the town still being used for its original purpose. In 1898, the East Dedham station carried 600 feet of hose and had 12 men employed in the company. The engine was drawn by a horse owned by the town and driven by an on-call driver. Later that year a committee was appointed which recommended a second horse for the East Dedham station for better protection. Additionally, a double harness and a two-hose carriage capable of carrying 1,200 feet of hose were purchased for the Hose No. 3 company. Horses were a major expense for the department - it cost $120 a year to maintain a horse for use by the fire department in 1898, that is almost $4,000 a year in today’s money.

The 80-foot bell tower on the East Dedham station came crashing down during Hurricane Carol on August 31, 1954. It crashed into the adjacent house where Mrs. Louise Guerrio was feeding her one-year old son Joseph. Thankfully, neither were hurt. It also crashed across Bussey Street crushing three cars and damaging the house at 219 Bussey.

[1] Frank Smith, 404.

[2] Boston Globe, March 3, 1880

[3] Boston Globe, June 15, 1896,

[4] Boston Globe, October 7, 1896, 11.

[1] 1898 Report of the Committee Dedham MA press at CW Wheeler).