Court House & North Church

Court House & North Church

Looking north on High Street Fire Department (lower level - High St.) of G.A.R.Hall (currently City Hall), Waldo County Court House & North Congregational Church BELFAST FIRE DEPARTMENT In this view of the lower level of City Hall, one can see the central fire station of the Belfast Fire Department, the home of the Washington Hose Company and the Belfast Hook & Ladder No. 1. The Belfast Fire Department, commanded by Chief Engineer I. Thurston Clough, in 1900 consisted of 54 volunteers, each paid $10 per year, who fought fires with two hand-pumpers, three hose reels, one hose "pung" or sled, two horse-drawn Hook & Ladder trucks (one on runners and the other on wheels), along with 3100 feet of good hose and 64 regularly checked hydrants scattered about town. the men, themselves, hauled the fire equipment to the scene of the fire, or if there was time, they borrowed a horse team from Cooper & Company on the waterfront. A 20-man Washington Hose Company and a new 15-man hook and ladder company were located beneath City Hall and a Seaside hose Company was located on the north side of town, on Vine Street. A primitive "fire alarm telegraph" system helped get word to the firemen as quickly as possible. WALDO COUNTY COURT HOUSE In 1850, the county commissioners purchased the land at the corner of Church & Market Streets as a site for the new county court house. Plans by B. S. Dean of Bangor and Edwin Lee Browne , architect of Boston were accepted and a contract for the proposed edifice was awarded to Edward Hawkes of Belfast in the amount of $14,000.00. The building was completed in 1853. On December 31st all public records were moved to the new building. On the first Tuesday of January 1854, a term of the Supreme Court, presided over by Judge Rice, was held in the new courtroom. A belfry and bell were added in 1856 NORTH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH Lastly can be seen the North Congregational Church (High St. side) at the corner of Church & Market Streets. When the Reverend William Frothingham took over the First Parish Church Congregational - the First Church on the corner of Church & Spring Streets) in 1819, he brought with him some decidedly Unitarian ideas. This precipitated a theological falling-out. The members of the congregation that did not embrace this philosophy, seceded and eventually built the North Congregational Church in 1831. The theological differences that separated them largely faded by 1900. In 1921, the Congregationalist sold the church to the American Legion and moved back in with the Unitarians at the First Church, healing the century old split.