As part of an initiative to preserve the visual history of Singerly Fire Company, I have been working with the department’s museum and archive committee to digitize the Bob Norman Collection. This sizable resource, containing over a half-century of fire service images, was added to the institutional repository by the company’s official fire photographer.
Fire Photographer Norman
Bob photographed calls while firefighters battled flames and worked other emergencies. Over the decades, his camera captured at least 10,000 images on 35mm slide film. Besides chronicling day-in and day-out activities, first responders used the action shots of firefighters for training, investigations, and public information. His comprehensive documentation is invaluable for anyone studying fire service history.
Singerly Fire Company Photographer Bob Norman, Feb. 2020
Of course, this large body of material required developing a process to safeguard the Kodak film and establish the historical context around each image. As preservation was the first challenge, the archive decided to migrate the physical collection of the film to digital format for long-term preservation and access. Up to this point, slides were projected on a screen to a roomful of people, but soon the collection will be conveniently accessible to anyone studying the department’s history.
Digital Conversion Project
To convert the film to a digital format, the fire department worked with O.K Video of Claymont, DE, a company capable of handling large-scale digital preservation projects. Now that the scanning is completed, we are moving into the documentation phase to record pertinent information for each shot and contextualize the moments in time that were captured. This involves the development of a plan to catalog and archive the massive volume of slides.
This conservation and curation project enhances access to this unique archive of visual material, which documents Singerly’s heritage over two centuries in each shot.
David Klein of O.K. Video and Singerly Firefighter Bob McKinney examine 35mm slides from one of the trays as they prepare to digitize the film.
CECILTON – September 2, 2020 – The demolition plan for the Levi Coppin School in Cecilton is being reassessed as a “post-review discovery” under section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, according to the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). Some months earlier, a determination had been made that the demolition of this African-American landmark would not adversely impact the community.
But with the clock ticking advocates heard that it was going to be razed so they stepped forward to provide significant information that hadn’t been discovered when the first 106 review was completed. Some of these new insights came from former students at Levi Coppin, while other evidence of important traces of earlier times came from a thesis, and a Google search that located blog posts, and articles published in the Cecil Whig in recent years.
The Levi Coppin School in Cecilton in the first half of 2020
For the moment the demolition is on hold in light of extra evidence of significance offered through petitions, letters, and the web as the State has opened the process to review the original determination. One of the steps in reconsidering the original declaration took place this afternoon in a former classroom at 233 Bohemia Avenue as people interested in making remarks about the adverse effect and potential mitigation of the proposed demolition offered comments for consideration and the public record.
The Cecil Historical Trust, a countywide preservation advocacy organization, sent a letter, saying that “due to the important history of the school and that period of transition to desegregated schools in the 1950s,” the group wanted to express support for preserving the building and revitalizing it for appropriate community use.
In the weeks leading up to this public hearing, the Maryland Historical Trust wrote a letter to Kyle Dixon, saying that “Based on the information you provided, we informed DHCD that the historic structure slated for demolition is the former Levi Coppin School, which was constructed in 1950, served as the school to educate African-American children, and continued to operate as a segregated school until its closure in 1965. The Cecilton school may be significant in the context of efforts toward school reform in the immediate postwar period, and for its association with school desegregation. The construction of the school apparently was motivated by the findings of a federal school survey; its architecture may reflect standards for “separate but equal” facilities of the period. While the school has not been formally inventoried or evaluated for its eligibility in the National Register of Historic Places, Section 106 regulations allow the agency official, in consultation with the Trust/SHPO, to assume that the newly identified property is eligible for the National Register for purposes of Section 106 consultation [36 CFR 800.13(c)]. We have advised DHCD that it would be appropriate to assume that the Levi Coppin School is eligible for the National Register.”
This is the first step in the review process, as advocates for preserving the building and its history stepped forward.
The Levi Coppin School in 1971 (Source: Cecil Whig)
Also See
A petition to Save the Levi Coppin School.
Leading up to the reopening of the State’s review process, interested parties circulated virtual and paper petitions. About 630 people ask that the dcision to demolish it be reconsidered.
In the mid-1980s, I started working on a project for Singerly Fire Company. We were preparing to celebrate our 100th anniversary in Elkton, MD, and planned several traditional projects. Tasks included researching, creating exhibits, commissioning an oil painting, and arranging events. However, we faced a challenge in restoring the two hand pumpers from the early 1800s, which had been used in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Elkton.
The restored hydraulion.
The elder piece of apparatus arrived in Elkton in 1827. Technically called a hydraulion because it carried its own hose reel mounted on top, it had been the pride of the Elkton firefighters for generations. James Sellers, a Philadelphia mechanic, built it in 1817 for a volunteer fire company in Philadelphia. It served there for nine years before it came to Maryland. The second unit, a suction engine, landed in 1859. A Baltimore company sold it as the city converted to steam engines.
These two hand pumpers were the town’s defense against flames until 1892, when Singerly purchased a modern Amoskeag Steam Engine. After that, the town gradually forgot about these units from another age, except for an occasional parade or special occasion, until the centennial neared. However, these aging relics needed work, so we started searching for contacts to help restore them.
We found Jack Robrecht and Al Wills, two fire service historians associated with the Philadelphia Fire Museum. After examining the pieces in Elkton, the Philadelphians suggested contacting an Amish carriage maker.
The old Philadelphia Hydraulion before restoration
In 1985, members of the company traveled to Lancaster County and talked with the Bart Fire Company. One of their members at the station that day recommended we visit the Nickel Mine Coach shop just a mile or two up the road from the firehouse. At the shop, we met a master Amish craftsman, Christian Petersheim Jr., and we discussed the restoration. As we were interested in engaging Mr. Petersheim but needed an estimate, a committee member drove him to Elkton to work up a quote a week later.
We settled on a price, and another member hauled the pumpers to Bart, PA. There, the master artisan and his helpers carefully examined the carriages to assess the restoration work required. Then, they disassembled them piece by piece, preserving the original components. Using hand tools from the 19th century, they cleaned, repaired, and reassembled the frames. The team used high-quality materials to paint and finish the carriages, resulting in beautifully restored artifacts.
The Nickel Mine Shop preserved the original design and ensured the pumpers were ready for another century. The shop did not have a telephone, so when we needed to talk with Mr. Petersheim, he went to the village store in Bart, where there was a payphone. The carriage maker finished the work a few years before the 100th anniversary.
In 2013, I revisited the Nickel Mine Road in Paradise, PA. Mr. Petersheim had retired, but his sons now manage the business. Still, I found him next door in a smaller shop as he has taken up reupholstering antique automobiles, including some for the Ford Museum. There as he where we reminisced about the job nearly 30 years earlier and viewed a photo album documenting the progress. Afterward, he won more fire department contracts, restoring seven additional hand-drawn fire apparatus. This apparatus came from VT., FL, PA., NY, and MD and included one hook and ladder. In his retirement, he started reupholstering antique cars from the early 1900s, which is what he was doing during my visit.
Nickle Mine Coach Shop
The work of this fine Amish craftsman appears in the Singerly Fire Company museum in Elkton, looking as good today as it did nearly forty years earlier when the two hand pumpers returned home to Elkton. Though we never tested it, Mr. Petersheim said the pump on the old hydraulion would work if we replaced a few seals. We were lucky to have the Philadelphia Fire Museum’s help and the carriage maker.
The question of what to do with an old, worn-out Maryland jail comes up occasionally. When it does, there are some that say these aging structures, relics from an earlier era, are just in the way of progress and have no value. But others argue that those aging walls, survivors of centuries, add to the cultural fabric, enhancing the built environment.
If a decision is made to preserve the institution some sort of adaptive reuse is often called for as the strong structure is converted into offices, police stations, museums, shops, or hotels. But there have been some instances where it is still used to detain wayward types, as an addition is attached to the original building.
Down in Princess Anne this question was before the local governing and civic boards in 1999 as they grappled with whether a 150 year-old county hoosegow had any value in the modern age. Fortunately Somerset County and Princess Anne are places that value historic preservation and so after much deliberation it was decided that there was a value proposition for the community in preserving the old jail.
In an acclaimed project that received preservation awards, the “Grey Eagle,” a place that confined notorious types from 1857 to 1987, was preserved and today is the Princess Anne Police Department headquarters. Standing vacant for over a decade after a modern detention center was built, the Town of Princess Anne considered demolishing the building in 1999 because of “its increasing decrepit state.”
But the vocal preservation-oriented community saw economic development value in adaptive reuse however, so the political leadership restored the structure with the help of the Maryland Historical Trust and other stakeholders. Today, this finely restored prison, built of Port Deposit Granite, adds great value from a practical and preservation standpoint as it’s the police station. It is a strong contributor to the historic district and, according to the town is a “symbol of pride.”
The Grey Lady, the Somerset County Jail, now serves as the headquaters for the Princess Anne Police Department.
