Reviving Traditions

John Q. Bradfield’s death at age twenty-eight in November 1908 made the front page of the Baton Rouge Daily Advocate. He was given a hero’s burial by the fire department, decorated in the company’s colors and interred in front of the fire station where he had lived and worked for thirteen years. The mound was kept green and well mowed, and flowers were laid there often by children who had known and loved him.

“Old Brad” was a horse. He was, in fact, lead horse for Baton Rouge’s first fire station, the Washington Fire Company—and the first horse ever put into service by the department. He was named for the merchant who, acting for the fire company, had purchased him at auction.

From 1890 to 1903, Brad served Baton Rouge from the original firehouse on Church Street (now Fourth). Upstairs was the parish library; children on their way in for a book always stopped to give Brad a pat and a lump of sugar. Company firemen would vie for the chance to walk him to the Sumpter House Bar on Third Street for a draft, which Brad would drink from a bucket.

... children on their way in for a book always stopped to give Brad a pat and a lump of sugar. Company firemen would vie for the chance to walk him to the Sumpter House Bar on Third Street for a draft, which Brad would drink from a bucket.

Legend has it that Old Brad and the other fire horses would trot to their proper places when the alarm sounded, ready to be harnessed to hose carriages.

Upon his retirement, Brad was “put out to pasture” in the yards of local citizens. Beloved, it seemed, by the whole town, he wandered from lawn to lawn, “boarding” with whatever family took his fancy then moving on. When the alarm sounded, Brad would still race to the fire.

A portrait of John Q. Bradfield once hung in the Robert A. Bogan Baton Rouge Fire Museum, whose collection of old photographs is being digitized. The museum was designed to intrigue and delight children (and adults) with the glorious history of firefighting. 

The museum is housed in what was once the Central Fire Station on Laurel Street. The station was renamed in 1959, following the death of Bogan, chief since 1918. When he died, Bogan was nearing fifty years in firefighting, including forty-one years as a paid employee and eight years as a volunteer.

When he died, Bogan was nearing fifty years in firefighting, including forty-one years as a paid employee and eight years as a volunteer.

The museum shares Bogan Fire Station with the office of the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge. This museum-arts center combination was arranged by the late mayor Woody Dumas (1916–93). Dumas’s friend Chief Willie Miller had spoken longingly of a firefighters museum. Dumas decided to restore the station, put the Arts Council on the second floor, and ask the council to establish and maintain the museum. A committee began work on the project in 1975 and labored for three years before the doors opened in 1978. Local firemen volunteered hours of time for the project. 

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The museum was important, Miller said, because the history of firefighting was not well known. “How many people know that George Washington was a volunteer firefighter?” he asked. (Baton Rouge’s first fire company was named for the first president. For years Baton Rouge had a firemen’s parade on Washington’s Birthday.) “Back when this country was founded, everybody was a firefighter,” said Miller. “Even women and children. Then it got to be a contest among men to see who was strong enough to pull the carts by hand, who could get to the fire fastest.”

Until the late 1980s, the museum was often a riotous place on Sunday afternoons and during specially arranged weekday tours, when school children explored the city’s firefighting past. 

Prime attractions are two bright-red, gold-striped fire engines, 1923 and 1926 LaFrance pumpers restored to mint condition when the museum first opened. A 1918 aerial ladder truck is one of the most popular items at the museum. 

“It was the first motorized aerial truck in Baton Rouge,” said Carroll Campbell, a retired firefighter who volunteers with the museum. “It has two steering wheels, front and back. I’ve driven this truck and tillered this truck [steered it from the back]. It was taken out of service in 1959. It sat in a field for years. When we found it in 1977, it was a bucket of rust. I helped restore it.”

The ladder truck was put into a different kind of service last December, when the museum invited local children to have their pictures taken with Santa and Mrs. Claus and two Dalmatians. “The kids had a great time,” said volunteer Laura McDavitt, who recalled taking her own children to the museum in the 1980s. She cranked a handle to demonstrate that the siren on the truck still works. “This was built back when they built them right,” she said of the 100-year-old vehicle.

Structural problems need to be addressed before the museum can resume keeping regular hours, McDavitt said. It is currently open by appointment.

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Along with vehicles, the exhibits include samples of firemen’s clothing—tall black rubber boots, long rubber coats, red gloves, hats. Kids can try on boots, ring bells, and sound alarms.

On view in a display case are leather fire buckets from 1846 and 1850, an era when Baton Rouge had only one water pump in the center of town and volunteer firemen formed bucket brigades. Hand-painted leather hats, looking like debonair top hats, are lined up next to later metal hats with turned-up brims designed to deflect falling embers.

Along with vehicles, the exhibits include samples of firemen’s clothing—tall black rubber boots, long rubber coats, red gloves, hats. Kids can try on boots, ring bells, and sound alarms.

Silver-plated fire horns, or trumpets, were used as megaphones by the chief to direct firefighting activities. They were occasionally engraved and presented to firemen for meritorious service or used as ornaments in parades. “A man from New Orleans recently donated an 1895 trumpet made of silver and lead that had been used at one of the Baton Rouge stations,” said the museum’s board president Michael Paternostro.

Several Gamewell alarms from the early 1900s are activated by a handle pull. They functioned telegraphically, tapping out the number of the alarm box to the central station. Three large record books from the 1880s and ‘90s are on display, with handwritten daily reports of fires.

The Fire Museum depends heavily on volunteer work and donations. “We are trying to revitalize it and bring awareness to it,” said Paternostro. “We have tons of memorabilia. Our goal is to open three days a week.” A firefighter himself, he is assisted by vice president McDavitt, treasurer Melissa Argrave, and historian Lisa Gremillion.

One revitalization project is the return of the Firefighter’s Ball that once was held annually, often after the parade on February 22, Washington’s Birthday. “The parades were fundraisers for the volunteer firefighters,” said Paternostro. “Sometimes they had to leave the parade to put out a fire.” 

“The parades were fundraisers for the volunteer firefighters,” said Paternostro. “Sometimes they had to leave the parade to put out a fire.” 

One such event was advertised in the Daily Advocate in 1885. “Come one! Come all! To the Firemen’s Ball,” trumpeted the ad. Admission was fifty cents; children under twelve were admitted free. That tradition is being revived this month. For the first time in more than twenty-five years, the Firefighter’s Ball will be held on February 2 at the downtown Hilton hotel with music by the Chris LeBlanc Band. 

On February 17, the museum will host Burning for Bogan, which McDavitt describes as “a cigar and whiskey-tasting night. We’ll play Frank Sinatra tunes, eat steaks, sip whiskey, smoke cigars, and talk about what we can do to save this building.”

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With its vintage firefighting equipment and abundance of local history, the Fire Museum is a natural draw for schoolchildren. A revitalized museum could again be a popular interpretive space. ”We have a unique opportunity in Baton Rouge to keep this museum a working community space that visitors and locals will enjoy,” said Arts Council Executive Director Renee Chatelain. “I look forward to continuing to celebrate this museum and its history alongside the firefighters, by sharing arts and cultural activities for people of all ages in the building, as we have since 1978.” 

Bringing people into the space is the key to enlisting support from the public, said McDavitt. “After the kids came here to visit Santa we had half a dozen calls from people wanting to visit the museum, Little boys and girls just want to ride that fire truck.”  

For more information about the Fire Museum, check the Robert A. Bogan Baton Rouge Fire Museum’s Facebook page. Ruth Laney can be reached at ruthlaney@cox.net.