By Haley Rose [1]
BELLEVILLE – Ring an old fire bell or dress up in fire gear and take photos in the “selfie zone” in a new, interactive exhibit exploring Belleville’s firefighting history now open at Station No. 1.
“Loyalty, Tradition & Progress: The History of the Belleville Fire Department [2]” had its grand opening on Sept. 17.
The Belleville Fire Department [3] teamed up with the Glanmore National Historic Site [4] to make the display possible.
The idea for the museum started several years ago when Belleville city council began discussing plans to build a new fire hall.
“Since the existing stations were quite small, we didn’t really have a place to display the collection of items and have a public space that was fully accessible for the people to come to,” said Mark MacDonald, fire chief and director of fire emergency services for Belleville. “When the new station was being designed, we said ‘let’s make sure we include the accessibility factor for the building and a museum space.’ We needed a big, open space where we could show the history of the Belleville fire department.”
Construction began in the fall of 2013, and the fire crew occupied the building in last June.
“We didn’t realize the size of the collection we had until we started down this path, and we’re very surprised at all the history of the Belleville fire department that was actually archived and recorded,” MacDonald said.
MacDonald also said that due to the nature of the job, the emergency services department does not normally cross paths with the historical society. Rona Rustige, the curator at Glanmore, echoed his words:
“The relationship was excellent. It was the first time we had ever formed a partnership like that with part of the community.”
Training officer Carson Cross played a big role in helping form the partnership. Cross was a member of the historical society for a number of years. Items he had in his personal collection, and those that were donated to Glanmore over the years, helped the exhibit come to life.
Newspaper articles, journals and photographs were used as references when creating the displays and showing the change from past to present.
“We’ve tried to bring a combination of history of all the fire halls together so two components became one,” said MacDonald.
The museum is open to the public during office hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. during the week. Tours can also be arranged on the weekends if the firefighters are at the station and available.
“I hope the community gets an appreciation for the museum, and for the long firefighting history and it’s service to the community. We hope people are able to see objects from Glanmore’s collection that they would not otherwise see. It’s also very kid friendly, so I think a lot of kids are going to enjoy coming through here,” Rustige said.