At the July 12 Town Council meeting, the Windham Historical Society was presented with two significant gifts for their Village Green. While staff from the Great Falls Construction Company were busy doing demolition work on the old South Windham Fire Station, they came upon some interesting artifacts.
The old South Windham Fire Co. sign will be exhibited at the South Windham Library on the Historical Society’s Village Green. Haley Pal / For Lakes Region Weekly
The first was the old “So. Windham Fire Co.” sign that was once displayed on the building. The second was the horn that would sound when there was a fire in town.
The gifts were presented to the Historical Society by Brendan Wormell and Devin Birks of Great Falls Construction and accepted by Walter Lunt of the Historical Society. Lunt was accompanied by Ernie Nichols, the former deputy chief of the South Windham Fire Department.
Nichols spoke briefly about the horn and how it alerted firefighters to fires.
“These whistles went into service in 1966,” he said. “The number of whistles that blew let firefighters know where in town the fire was.”
Lunt went on to explain that the sign has actually come full circle. Before there was an official fire station in South Windham, when there was a fire in town, the hose, possibly attached to a steam engine, would be taken from the hose house to battle the blaze. The hose house was a small building on Main Street on the Gorham side of the Presumpscot River. It was later repurposed into the South Windham Library and it served the community for decades.
The South Windham Library will exhibit the sign and horn donated by Great Falls Construction. Haley Pal / For Lakes Region Weekly
Today, that very same little yellow building is a part of the society’s Village Green Living History Center. When renovations on it are complete, it will be dedicated to the the history of the South Windham section of town. This is where the horn and the sign will be exhibited for future generations to see.
Great Falls Construction is a Gorham company in the process of converting the old 1950s fire station on Main Street into a modern brew pub and restaurant. The new facility will be state-of-the-art, but will still maintain some of the building’s historic features. Both Great Falls Construction and the town of Windham are hoping that this new addition to South Windham will be the first step in helping to rejuvenate the village and bring it back to the vibrant, busy place that it once was.
Haley Pal is a Windham resident and an active member of the Windham Historical Society. She can be contacted at haleypal@aol.com.
The South Windham firehouse will be a brew pub and restaurant in the future. Haley Pal / For Lakes Region Weekly
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