Charlie Stowe was skeptical every time he heard about the Ansonia Fire Museum on Howard Avenue.
But that changed Saturday, when Stowe and several other city officials visited the under-construction museum for the first time.
“You could say I was suspicious. There were a lot of rumors about it,” said Stowe, a Republican member of the Board of Aldermen.
Eugene Sharkey, a fire commissioner and president of the Ansonia Board of Aldermen, explained the making of the museum to about 20 people at an open house Saturday.
Sharkey and several volunteers answered questions and showed off the historical collections on display at the museum, located at the former Charles H. Pine High School.
Sharkey is part of a group of about 12 close-knit volunteers who have poured countless hours into rehabilitating the old high school’s woodworking shop into a spacious and impressive fire museum. The museum is still a work in progress and is not open to the public yet, Sharkey said.
However, Sharkey said they hope to finish work at the site and open the museum by the end of the year.
After months of questions from critics during public comment sessions at Board of Aldermen meetings, Sharkey and the other volunteers decided to host the open house before the museum is complete.
The critics specifically questioned where a $6,000 line-item in the city’s annual budget — earmarked for the Ansonia Fire Museum — was actually going.
Saturday, they saw.
“This has all been cleared up and I’m glad,” Stowe said. “It’s something that does not need to be taking up the taxpayers’ minds.”
Background
The effort to create a fire museum for the city started in late 2004, when the Boys and Girls Club purchased the former Charles H. Pine High School from the City of Ansonia.
The plans for the building included the new Boys and Girls clubhouse, a YMCA daycare, and a fire museum for the city.
The Ansonia Fire Museum Corporation — a non-profit group set up to run the museum — rents the wing of the building for $1 a year, Sharkey said. They use the $6,000 a year from the city to help pay for utility costs and repairs.
But that money doesn’t cover all the expenses to restore and upgrade the building.
The volunteers make up the difference with donated supplies and work.
“Everything in this building was removed,” Sharkey said. “Every piece of plumbing went out. All the electrical went out. Everything had to be done over. The people who are involved in the museum did all of this on their own time.”
The Boys and Girls Club paid for and installed all new windows, Sharkey said.
The Museum
Over the past seven years, the volunteers have gutted the building and created a large space for displaying Ansonia fire artifacts.
Four fire trucks are on display at the museum — including a 1948 open-top Mack EF truck with a front-mounted pumper. That truck was purchased by members of the Ansonia Fire Museum Corp. The three other trucks are on loan from the Webster Hose Co. and Charter Hose Co. fire houses in Ansonia.
Several different displays track the progressions of fire equipment over the years.
Along one wall hang firefighter jackets dating from the 1930s to current times.
Various fire extinguishers — including a charred one used to fight the Latex Foam fire — line another wall.
Ladders are suspended from the high ceilings.
The fire museum also includes collections of memorabilia from other fire houses — including glass mugs and license plates.
“I think it will be great for the students of Ansonia to come here and see the fire history of the city,” Mayor James Della Volpe said Saturday.
Article continues after photo gallery.
Reaction
The group of people at the museum Saturday said they were impressed by the progress.
“It went from a derelict, empty, broken building with people living in here, to an asset for the people of Ansonia,” said Bart Flaherty, chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission and the chairman of the Ansonia clubhouse for the Boys and Girls Club.
“This is what community is all about,” Flaherty said. “It’s a group of people with a common vision and willingness to do this.”
Terry Burns, a resident of Ansonia, attended the open house with Stowe.
“You didn’t know a lot about it,” Burns said. “It’s kept locked up.”
After the tour, Burns said he was impressed by what he saw.
“I like what they’re doing here,” Burns said. “They’ve done a nice job sprucing up the building.”
Next Steps
The fire museum volunteers are hoping to clean up the hardwood floors in the building before opening the museum to the public. Years of use as a woodworking shop have left the floors littered with materials and oil spots.
A volunteer has already spent time patching holes in the floor left after walls were removed from former classrooms.
Volunteers are receiving estimates now for the rest of the clean-up work, which would involve sanding down the flooring until the debris is no longer visible.
Sharkey said once the museum is ready to be open to the public, it will likely be open at select times for people to browse the history.
