Liberty Engine Co. No.1

Liberty Engine Co. No.1. . Gold Hill's first fire company was organized as Silver Hook and Ladd on Novemeber 18, 1863. It disbanded and re-organized as Liberty Hose Co. No.1 on August 19 1864, purchasing its first hose carriage from Folsom and Hiller of San Francisco in October of 1864 for $400. The company occupied a 16 by 25 foot town owned building, later moving to Sol Weil's building on Main St. In 1868, the company purchased a Hunneman hand-pumped fire engine from San Francisco's Howard Engine Co. No.3, re-organizing as an engine company, but retaining the hose company. In 1869 Liberty built its own 28 by 60 foot firehouse on this site, with a bell tower and second floor rooms for the foreman and one or two others. In 1873, the company sold the Hunneman hand engine and purchased a new Button hand, adding a structure on the north side for maintaining and storing hose in 1874. Liberty sold its hand engine in 1910, keeping a four-wheel hose carriage and two-wheel cart in service. Liberty Engine and Hose No.1 disbanded in 1938. A WPA project repaired and painted the firehouse that year, but the combination of heavy snows and schools desk stored on the second floor collapsed the old firehouse in the winter of 1952.