Name/Title
Alameda Fire Department Bell, 1894Entry/Object ID
2026.32.1Description
Acc. No. 26.32.1
Subject Category: Fire Department
Date or Period: 1894
Object: Bell
Description: Large cast metal bell, mounted on concrete block, painted with a metallic anti-corrosion paint, with the words: 'ALAMEDA FIRE DEPARTMENT' cast on the center of the bell. In a ring around the top, 'N.C.WHYTE & L.DeROME GLOBE BRASS & BELL FOUNDRY & STATUARY WORKS. S.F. 1894’.
Size: Bell: H: approximately 25 inches; Diameter Circa 36 inches; Concrete base: approximately 47 x 47 x 10 inches.
History of Object: original Fire Alarm Bell from the Webster Street Fire Station, cast in 1894 by Whyte & DeRome’s SF Foundry - responsible for casting bells and monuments all around the Bay Area. DeRome had been head brass molder at the Garratt Brass Works, which had cast Alameda’s first fire bell, for the then Thompson Hose company House - later Webb Station or Fire Station No. 1 - in 1875.
After the bells fell out of use, the Webster Station bell was at some point acquired by the Richmond–San Rafael Ferry Company (originally Richmond–San Rafael Ferry and Transportation Company), which operated from 1915 until the 1956 opening of the Richmond–San Rafael Bridge. From the pier it was installed in the Toll Plaza area of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. In 1964, it was returned to Alameda, no doubt thanks to the cast lettering on it. At the time, the history of the bell was unknown, and it was placed in a corner of the Alameda City Corporation Yard, from where it was apparently passed on to the Alameda Historical Society. After former Fire Department employee, museum member, and local historian Archie Waterbury identified the origin of the bell, it was placed behind the Meyers House during a ceremony on July 8, 2000, with a proclamation by Mayor Ralph Appezzato, and attended by Archie Waterbury, Museum Board President Diane Coler-Dark, curator George Gunn, city councilmembers Al De-Witt and Barbara Kerr, City Manager Jim Flint and Dale Lillard of the Alameda Recreation and Park Department, Fire Chief Rod Buchanan and Deputy Chief Tim McNeil, contingent of off-and on-duty firefighters, retired firefighters and their wives, and museum volunteers, some in historic costumes.
The concrete block was created by museum volunteer Ken Carvalho.
Donor: Alameda Fire Department
Donation Date: Before July 8, 2000
Catalog Date: 5/20/2026
