Many times, each day alerts go out in Elkton for an emergency and first-responders dash straight for a nearby Singerly Fire Station. Within minutes, emergency vehicles, sirens screaming and lights flashing, roll out of a firehouse, rushing to a blazing inferno, a serious accident, or some other emergency. Scenes of this type have been happening here for centuries and the stations that protected Elkton have an interesting legacy.
The first one went up long before the current department was formed as a simple town-owned shed quartered buckets, ladders, and two creaky old hand pumpers, all the essentials for an up-to-date pre-Civil War protective force. This old engine shed was erected about 1828 when the town purchased its first used piece of firefighting apparatus in Philadelphia. In 1859, the size of the force was doubled as a second pumper, one from Baltimore was squeezed into the shed.
After decades of debate about the need for an expanded council hall, the town-fathers finally got around to constructing a grander, much needed municipal building at a cost of just under $3,000 in 1890. The two-story brick structure with a bell tower, was turned over to the commissioners in February of 1891. Once the Singerly Fire Company was incorporated in 1892, the first floor housed Singerly’s steam engine, hook-and-ladder, and two hose carts while the upper story served as the municipal office.
In a town that had relied on two stubborn old hand-pumpers for over 60 years, it was a modern advancement as the latest in firefighting equipment packed the first floor of the town hall. Remarkably only one complaint was heard about the new headquarters, as it was going up. The “doors were too narrow to allow the steam engine the town was going to get to come out at full speed,” a youngman in the insurance business observed.
The old engine shed that for over sixty years had protected equipment against the weather wasn’t going to be missed. As it was torn down and removed, the Cecil Whig reported that it had exceeded all sense of fitness for its purpose and was now going to be used as a hen roostery. “From the only town building to a hen roost! How have the mighty fallen!” the Whig wrote.
In the 20th-century Elkton experienced enormous growth as the town expanded and developments began springing up in the cornfields outside the municipality. Also, the technology changed as steam engines soon gave way to motorized fire trucks so the need for more space became urgent.
To help with that the town turned the entire building over to Singerly as municipal offices moved next door to a new structure that had been built just before World War II broke out. But space shortages continued and the next modern Singerly Fire Station, located one block up North Street was dedicated on May 27, 1950.
Singerly’s first station, once filled with hose and fire engines is quiet now since it used for other purposes by the town of Elkton. The old alarm bell no longer clangs with an urgent appeal and shiny red fire trucks don’t bolt out the door.
