A Tribute to the Old Fire Station – Part 1

Recently, Fil (Oakhill’s president) travelled all the way to New Jersey to pick up this beautiful antique hand drawn hose cart for our front lobby. This antique cart dates back 158 years to 1859!

So why did we want this for our front lobby?

Our new office resides in an old fire hall and we think it’s a perfect fit considering the history. The original building was constructed in 1879 as Merritton City Hall and in 1888 the Merritton Fire Department was established and ran out of the City hall building. They would have used a cart like this until the early 1900’s when the Merritton Fire Department owned Niagara’s first firefighting vehicle. In the historical photo below you can see the ramp area where a cart like this would be rolled out by horses to put out fires in the Merritton area.

fire station

Today location of the doors and ramp can still be seen, though new additions and renovations (and a fire in 1929…ironic we know…) have changed it from its original form.

fire station