George Lowell served as South Portland’s first city electrician from 1903 to 1911, then again from 1921 until his retirement in 1949. His son, Bob Lowell, served under his father as assistant city electrician, then took over as city electrician after George’s retirement, serving in that position from 1950 until his death in 1969. Shown here is George Lowell in 1955 at 90 years old, showing off a one-circuit fire alarm board that was purchased and installed by the city in 1916 in its then-new electrical building at the end of O’Neil Street. Contributed / South Portland Historical Society

You probably drive by the small building at 513 Broadway frequently and never give it a thought. The Electrical Building in Mill Creek has its own interesting history, notably its origin as a project of the short-lived Civil Works Administration in 1934.

In early years, if a South Portland resident had a house fire, they were highly likely to lose everything due to the difficulty of communication and the delayed response time by firefighters. It was reportedly volunteer firefighter Philip S. Melcher, at Hose Company 2 on Pillsbury Street, who first raised the idea of creating a whistle fire alarm system in 1905. The city bought a hand-operated steam whistle in 1906 and Cumberland County Power and Light allowed it to be installed in their steam house in Knightville. In case of fire, someone would need to call the man on duty in the steam house who could sound the whistle there, alerting volunteer firefighters around the city that there was a fire. The whistle would send out a series of blasts, identifying where in the city the fire call was coming from.

The first electrical fire alarm system was installed in 1907. This first system, with 12 pull boxes installed around Ferry Village, was established by Volunteer Hose Company 1 on School Street. George H. Lowell did the work; he donated his labor to install the system that was purchased by the hose company. With the electrical system installed, all one had to do in case of fire was run outside to the nearest pull box, open the door and pull down the lever. An electrical signal would then go from that box to the city’s electrical department, where the number on the box was identified with either a punched ticker tape or a tapper that would strike a bell, striking out the number of the fire box. Each fire box had its own unique number and the volunteer firefighters had tappers installed in their homes. Firefighters (and many homeowners, too) had a little red book in which they could look up the number to determine the location of the call.

The first headquarters of the alarm system was on School Street. The cost of upkeep of the system proved to be more than Hose Company 1 could handle, however, so the city started contributing to the cost in 1908, and the city later took the system over in March 1913. By 1914, the city moved the headquarters of the alarm system (now called “the electrical building” to the Knightville School, then moved it to a newly constructed building on O’Neil Street in early 1916, and to the Central Fire Station on Thomas Street in 1926.

During the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt created a program to create jobs called the Civil Works Administration. The CWA began on Nov. 9, 1933, and there was a huge push to get people off welfare and into these CWA jobs. On its first payday on Nov. 23, 1933, there were 814,511 CWA workers on the payroll. By January 1934, there were more than 4 million CWA workers. The projects undertaken were sponsored by the local, state and federal government, and were on public land – building and/or improving roads/infrastructure and public buildings. The sponsor had to pay for the materials, but all labor was paid with CWA funding.

Although the CWA was short-lived, South Portland was quick to take advantage of the program. According to the city’s annual report, there were 258 residents of South Portland who were put to work through the relief program. Some of the projects undertaken included painting and doing repairs in all of our schools; digging 2 miles of drainage ditches along Payne Road and Spring Street; grading and surfacing 5 miles of sidewalks; construction of 2.5 miles of sewers; cleaning 18 miles of existing sewers; construction of buildings to house city equipment; and removing ledge from streets. According to the public works commissioner of South Portland at that time, Albert Waterman, the city contributed about $10,000 in total toward CWA projects to take advantage of about $100,000 in federal funding through that program.

We’ll continue our look at the fire alarm system and the Electrical Building in Mill Creek Park next week.

Cookie Jar ornaments

The Cookie Jar ornaments are now available at South Portland Historical Society, Drillen Hardware, Shoppers Hardware, Broadway Variety, and the Cookie Jar. Contributed / South Portland Historical Society

Our 2024 fundraiser ornament features the landmark business, Cookie Jar Pastry Shop, and is on sale now for $20 at the museum gift shop at Bug Light Park where you can pay by cash, check or credit card. All 10 of our previous ornaments are available at the museum, including Bug Light, Fishermen’s Point, Liberty shipyards, Red’s Dairy Freeze, Willard Square, Spring Point/Fort Gorges, Cape Elizabeth train depot, Thornton Heights fire station, and the Mahoney and Memorial schools. There are also several generous retailers who have agreed to offer the ornaments for sale, with all proceeds going to the historical society. Please plan to pay by cash or check at the outside retail locations – Drillen Hardware on Cottage Road; Shoppers Hardware in Mill Creek; Broadway Variety on Broadway; or at the Cookie Jar. FMI, call the society at 207-767-7299 or email sphistory04106@gmail.com.