So the question arose during a meeting yesterday, "when was the fire station wing added to City Hall?" None of us could remember exactly, so I went home and looked it up. For collectors of Lucas County trivia, here's the answer: Chariton voters approved 615 to 140 on April 5, 1977 a $285,000 bond issue to construct it, it was built during 1978 and dedicated on Aug. 11, 1979, after finishing work had been completed.
City Hall, as built during 1931 to a design by architect (and city engineer) William Lee Perkins, included the fire station within the structure. Here's what it looked like.
As part of the 1970s project, the area formerly occupied by the fire station was converted into city offices and a city council chamber and the door area infilled with brick and windows matching the rest of the facade. Here's what it looks like now.
But the fire bell mounted on a brick canopy guarding the pedestrian entrance to the new fire station wing is much older than either part of the city hall complex, dating back to a major --- and embarrassing --- fire that destroyed Chariton's first fire station and all it contained during the early morning hours of Sunday, Sept. 9, 1883.
That fire station was located on the site of the current city hall, conveniently located next door to the Graves Livery Stable, just to the north, and the Shuless & Gates Livery Stable, just across South Main to the east. Among the losses, in addition to the building, were Old Betsy I, an 1877 Silsby Steamer; the hook and ladder wagon; and all other firefighting equipment.
City officials moved very quickly after that. A new two-story brick fire station-city hall was built during October and November on the site of the destroyed building, a replacememt Silsby Steamer (still lovingly maintained by the Fire Department and known as Old Betsy) ordered, a new hook and ladder wagon purchased --- and a fire bell acquired to summon firefighters and sound in cases of emergency.
Newspaper reports tell us that the bell was ordered on Nov. 12, 1883, at a cost of $372.66.
The Chariton Patriot of Dec. 12, 1883, was able to report not only arrival of the new Old Betsy, but also of the bell: "The new fire bell, weighing upwards of twelve hundred pounds, has also been received, and will be placed in position as soon as possible."
No provision for the old bell was made in plans for the new city hall in 1931 and it fell into disuse after a siren system was installed. Eventually, according to newspaper reports, it ended up in the hands of First Nazarene Church, then was passed on by the church to a church camp near Des Moines. And there it remained until the 1970s when Chariton firefighters set out to find it.
Firefighters were able to locate the bell but unable to convince camp officials to sell it. A trade agreement was worked out, however. When the Derby Methodist Church was torn down, the firefighters bought the bell, reconditioned it and gave it to the church camp in return for Chariton's old fire bell.
The bell was placed in a temporary display tower in front of City Hall and dedicated as a city landmark on July 3, 1976, then rung on July 4, 1976, as part of a nationwide "ring out for freedom" celebration that marked the U.S. bicentennial. The bell was moved to its permanent location atop the new fire station's pedestrian entrance canopy three years later, during July of 1979, and has been there ever since.
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