In the mail responding to last week’s Where were responses from JT, Michael McMahon, former Rumson Fire Chief Kevin McCarthy, Kevin Anderson and Jackie.
All but one correctly identified the structure shown as the bell tower of the Oceanic Hook and Ladder Company in Rumson.
One mistook it for the steeple at the Trinity Episcopal Church on West Front Street in Red Bank.
According to a history on the fire company website, the cinderblock firehouse to which the tower is attached was built in 1939, replacing a wooden firehouse on the same site, at the corner of West River Road and Allen Street, in 1890. The second floor of the original structure is where the borough council met until 1927, when the original Memorial Borough Hall went into operation, according to historian Randall Gabrielan’s “Rumson: Shaping a Superlative Suburb.”
The current structure is in the Moderne style and was designed by Rumson resident J. Sanford Shanley, writes Gabrielan, of Middletown.
Kevin Anderson says the current tower housed a siren until the horn was moved outside in the 1960s.
Thank you all for taking the time to write in.
Readers who think they have a bead on this week’s image should drop us a line via email.
