Port Chilkoot Volunteer Fire Department
Port Chilkoot Volunteer Fire Department, Former Fort Seward Fire Hall, Fort Seward Drive, Haines, Alaska. Fort William H. Seward was established in 1902, along with the other buildings in the fort, the fire station was built between 1902 and 1904. The tower was for drying the fire hose, in the winter a fire was built to help the drying. Sometime in the 1930's the 60' tower was lowered. In 1947 the fort was sold to private investors and became known as Port Chilkoot. In 1960 Port Chilkoot merged with the Borough of Haines along with the fire departments. In early 2014 the old firehouse was sold to the owners of the Guardhouse next door who restored the hose tower in late spring 2014.
1 comment:
Been looking for any info on this interesting building since I saw it being used as Dr. Michelle Oakley’s vet clinic in her National Geographic show. The show gave no history on it at all and I’ve been thinking all this while that it might have been an old chapel because of the tower. A little mystery that I kept wondering about after every episode. Saw a shot of the Halingsland Hotel in one episode and finally managed to look at the place through Google Maps. The photo on there was of the old fire station, with “Port Chilkoot VFD” painted on the front, the “F” missing the lower horizontal line. A very cool and helpful look back in time.
With those keywords uncovered, I found your blog and the answer! The purpose of the tower is such a fun little nugget of information. The curious little bee buzzing at the back of my mind for months now is finally at peace. Your blog is wonderful. From someone on the other side of the world (the Philippines) — thank you very much!
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