Queen Square

Queen Square, laid out in 1771 as part of Brunswick, Georgia, under the Oglethorpe Plan and named to honor the ruling queens of England, became a center of the city’s fire service as Brunswick’s late nineteenth-century prosperity in naval stores, railroad ties, and lumber made fire protection crucial. The southeastern quadrant housed the Brunswick Fire Department from 1876 to 1932, beginning with the volunteer Oceanic Fire Company #1’s celebrated move there in 1876 with its American LeFrance steam engine, the Viola, followed by the formation of Mechanics Hook and Ladder Company No. 1 in 1884, the addition of a landmark hose tower by 1885, and the enlargement of the station in 1890 with a paid squad led by Chief J.H. Harrison. On April 3, 1896, sparks from dockside construction equipment ignited nearby rosin barrels, and the resulting fire, fed by warehouses full of naval stores, cotton, wood products, and other flammable goods, destroyed over half the downtown business section before firefighters extinguished it after 12 hours of struggle against high winds and dwindling water pressure. After the fire, Brunswick invested steadily in fire protection, making the entire firefighter workforce paid by 1908, replacing the hose tower by 1913 with more modern equipment able to handle 4,200 feet of cotton rubber-lined hose, and supplying the whole department with motorized vehicles in September 1914 before the move to new headquarters on Gloucester Street in 1932 ended the Queen Square firehouse era.

Brunswick, Georgia · United States