Tag: Fire

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From The Story of Dartmouth, by John P. Martin: In January 1897 George Foston’s house near Maynard’s Lake was burned to the ground early on a below-zero morning. Later that year a dreadful holocaust took the lives of two people at the former; Lennox homestead on Chestnut Lane, Cole Harbor Road. Youthful James Harrison, clad only in night-clothes, heroically rescued injured George Tulloch from the flaming building. Mr. Tulloch later succumbed to burns received. The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria was celebrated in June. Over 1,000 flag-waving school children were marched by their teachers to the Common Field where they sang patriotic songs and heard addresses on loyalty from Rev. Principal Grant of Queen’s University, and from Attorney-General Longley of Nova Scotia. Dartmouth north-end residents commemorated the Victorian Jubilee in a more tangible form. They purchased from the Sinclair estate a two-acre block of land, then in a swampy and …

1897 Read More…

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From The Story of Dartmouth, by John P. Martin: In 1888 George E. McDonald came to Dartmouth as lineman and agent of the Bell Telephone Co., and set up the Exchange in his residence at 19 Edward Street. There were then some 30 telephones in use, including one at the Town Hall and another at Chief of Police McKenzie’s house above the lock-up. The latter instrument was mostly to receive fire calls. This innovation marked a great improvement over the established practice of messengers running on foot or galloping on horseback long distances whenever an alarm had to be sounded. Even after the fire-bell rang, disastrous delays often occurred because of the roundabout arrangements employed in moving the fire engine. One night in February, for instance, Williams’ two-storey boat-shop was burnt to the ground. The building stood at the foot of Church Street which location is almost within shouting distance …

1888 Read More…

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From The Story of Dartmouth, by John P. Martin: The first public demonstration of a telephone in Dartmouth, and also the first local broadcast over wires took place on March 21st, 1878, when a vocal and instrumental concert at the Town Hall was heard and acknowledged through telephone apparatus set up in the Dominion Telegraph Company’s office at 187 Hollis Street in Halifax. The Dartmouth hookup was made by connecting a telephone instrument to the local telegraph wire, an extension of which had been run in to the auditorium of the Town Hall. This Dartmouth exhibition of the newly-invented telephone, previously advertised as a feature of the concert, was highly successful. Communication was held with the City, and the notes of musical instruments were clearly heard by a group assembled in the Halifax office. They in turn rendered a short program which was listened to by the Town Hall audience. …

1878 Read More…