Notice of 1893 Vote on Proposal To Build Pelhamville's First Fire House

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As I wrote here on the Historic Pelham Blog on January 30, the Town of Pelham is in the process of making some improvements to the basement of Town Hall located at 34 Fifth Avenue. Representatives of the Town asked The Office of The Historian to review materials that had been stored in the basement for decades since the material needs to be removed from the basement while the improvements are made. That review turned up a few historically significant items that I have promised to share digitally. (See Mon. January 30, 2006: "Cleanup of Pelham Town Hall Basement Leads to Discoveries").

One of the items discovered during last weekend's review was a poster providing notice of an "election" in 1893 in which the voters residing in the Town of Pelham north of the Village of Pelham Manor were asked to approve a $4,000 assessment to fund, among other things, the construction of Pelhamville's first fire house. An image of the poster appears immediately below. The text of the notice follows the image to facilitate full text searches.

"ELECTION NOTICE.

In accordance with the following petition and in persuance [sic] of Chapter 254 of the Laws of 1891 I, E W. Waterhouse, Town Clerk of the Town of Pelham do hereby call an Election to be held by the electors of all that portion of the said Town of Pelham lying north of the northern boundary of the village of Pelham Manor in said town, to be held at the Court House in Pelhamville on Thursday, Feb. 2, 1893, to determine whether the sum of Four Thousand Dollars $4000 shall be levied and assessed for the purpose as set forth in the said following petition.

The polls of the election will be opened at 12 o'clock noon, and closed at 8 o'clock P.M. of said day.

PETITION.
PELHAMVILLE, N. Y., JANUARY 14, 1893.

E. W. Waterhouse, Esq., Town Clerk, Town of Pelham.

Dear Sir:

At a meeting held Jan. 13, 1893, at the Court House of Pelhamville of the taxpayers and enrolled members wishing to form a Fire Department as approved by the Town Board, it was regularly moved and seconded to request that you call a special election to ask for an appropriatinn [sic] of Four Thousand Dollars $4000 for this Fire district, consisting of all that portion of the Town of Pelham north of the village of Pelham Manor for the purpose of purchasing the necessary land TO BUILD A SUITABLE HOUSE, AND THE NECESSARY APPARATUS, HOOK AND LADDER, HOSE CART AND HOSE.

OTTO W. STROETREL, WM. H. SPARKS, C. W. BOLTON, WILLIAM BARRY, WM. T. STANDEN.

S. Gregoor. Secretary.

E. W. Waterhouse. Town Clerk."


Please Visit the Historic Pelham Web Site
Located at http://www.historicpelham.com/.
Please Click Here for Index to All Blog Postings.