The Shockoe ExaminerBlogging the History of Richmond, Virginia: Hook and Ladder Truck Company No. 2, Richmond Fire Department, 1894

Friday, January 17, 2025

Hook and Ladder Truck Company No. 2, Richmond Fire Department, 1894 - 1805 E Grace St.

"Hook and Ladder Truck Company No. 2, Richmond Fire Department" from The Richmond Virginia Fire Department - compiled by the Firemen's Relief Association, Richmond, Va, published in 1894. The publication is full of images and information about the history of the fire department and its current status as of 1894.

The building on the right in the 1894 image was their fire station, located at 1805 E Grace St. That building now is home to the Ironclad Coffee Roasters.

Read more about the Richmond Fire Company of 1894 HERE.

- Ray

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: In 1890 Hook and Ladder Company 2 moved into new quarters located at 1805 E. Grace Street.
In 1952 the company was relocated into the Quarters of Engine Company 2 at 2016 E. Main Street.

In April 1962, the company was relocated to the new quarters of Engine Company 1 at 308 N. 24th and E. Broad Streets, along with Engine Co. 2. There they remain today.; January 17, 2025 at 3:14 PM

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Contributors:

Ray Bonis:

Ray worked at VCU Libraries' James Branch Cabell Library from 1989 until 2021. He is the co-author of Virginia Commonwealth University (2006) and Greetings from Richmond (2009) - an architectural history of the city.

Selden Richardson:

Architectural historian and author of Built By Blacks: African American Architecture and Neighborhoods in Richmond, Virginia (2006), The Tri-State Gang in Richmond: Murder and Robbery in the Great Depression. (2012), and Richmond Murder & Mayhem (2023)

On History:

"The dead were and are not. Their place knows them no more and is ours today...The poetry of history lies in the quasi-miraculous fact that once, on this earth, once, on this familiar spot of ground, walked other men and women, as actual as we are today, thinking their own thoughts, swayed by their own passions, but now all gone, one generation vanishing into another, gone as utterly as we ourselves shall shortly be gone, like ghosts at cockcrow."
-- G. M. Trevelyan (1876-1962) from his "Autobiography of an Historian," An Autobiography and Other Essays (1949).

Key Dates in Richmond History
(more to follow)

1737 – William Mayo laid out the original street plan for the town of Richmond on land provided by William Byrd II.

1742 – Chartered as a town

1780 – Virginia’s state capital moved from Williamsburg to Richmond.

1782 – Incorporated as a city.

1788 - Virginia State Capitol building completed.

1860-1865 – Serves as capital of the Confederate States of America.

1910 - Manchester, the city located just south of the James, is consolidated with Richmond.

1949 - Oliver Hill (1907-2007) elected to City Council, first African American since Reconstruction.

1968 - Virginia Commonwealth University created by the merger of the Medical College of Virginia and Richmond Professional Institute.

1977 - Henry Marsh elected as first African American mayor of Richmond.

2009 – Shockoe Examiner founded.