Following a disastrous fire that leveled the Watts Block in 1915, the Board of Selectmen and townspeople voted to purchase new modern equipment for the fire department. The apparatus was a gasoline powered Eureka pumping machine that was horse drawn and was the best technology for its time. In the photograph, Fire Chief Edwin Anderson sat at the front and Town Manager Harold Putnam stood on the tailgate. The firehouse shown in 1870 was on the prison grounds, with State of Maine Engine No. 3 in front with its hosecart. The engine is now in the Maine State Museum, and Thomaston had several firehouses, of which this one was particularly typical of its era.