From Phil Stenholm:
Another installment on the History of the Evanston Fire Department
The Changing Face of Evanston
Between 1907 and 1912, Evanston underwent major changes in its geography. One of the most significant developments was the construction of the North Shore Channel, a sanitary canal built by the Sanitary District of Chicago. This canal connected Lake Michigan at Wilmette Harbor to the north branch of the Chicago River near Foster and Sacramento streets. Its primary purpose was to carry sewage from Evanston and Wilmette southward to a treatment plant on Howard Street, preventing raw sewage from being dumped into Lake Michigan. This improvement helped reduce the spread of diseases like typhoid fever and cholera, which had been recurring problems for the area.
At the same time, the city council required the elevation of railroad tracks within Evanston. The two main railroads operating in the city at the time were the Chicago and North Western (C&NWRR) and the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul (CM&StP), known as "The Milwaukee Road." These tracks were raised, especially between Howard Street and the Wilmette border, with viaducts built at key locations. However, not all tracks needed to be elevated. The C&NWRR's freight lines, known as the Mayfair Division, only required elevation south of Church Street because they primarily served industrial areas. The Milwaukee Road tracks, now used by the CTA, were elevated only as far as Church Street, following an agreement that trains would not run north of downtown Evanston.
On the morning of April 26, 1912, at 1:00 AM, the Evanston Fire Department (EFD) responded to a fire at Church and Dodge Streets. When crews arrived, multiple homes were already burning. The fire started in an unfinished home owned by Renaldo Roberti at 1819 Church Street and quickly spread to the William Marion residence at 1817 Church Street. Marion’s daughter, Pearl, jumped from a second-floor window into the arms of neighbor Emil Pavel, who had just saved his wife and daughter from their own home at 1715 Dodge Avenue. While firefighters managed to save the Pavel house, several other homes were lost, including those of Frank Kuzik, Lewis Titus, and Ludwig Veiter, along with the Roberti and Marion residences.
Strong winds made the fire more difficult to control, but EFD crews succeeded in containing it, preventing further spread to the north and east. No one was injured, and this marked the first time all three EFD engines—the Robinson motor engine, the American-LaFrance Metropolitan steamer, and the Ahrens Metropolitan steamer—were deployed together. The total damage amounted to $11,250.
While earlier fires, such as the 1903 bombing of the Ebenezer A.M.E. Church and a 1911 blaze in the "Italian settlement" at Dewey and Payne, had caused destruction, the 1912 fire at Church and Dodge was the worst to date in the 5th Ward. At the time, the 5th Ward was largely inhabited by immigrants and African Americans, making it the poorest and most politically isolated ward in Evanston. It lacked a significant business district, high-value housing, and any direct connection to the City of Chicago, which limited the influence of its aldermen in city politics.
Because of its political isolation, the 5th Ward had little support when Chief Carl Harrison proposed building a fourth fire station at Emerson and Ashland in 1912. Only the two 5th Ward aldermen backed the idea, and the city council showed little interest.
A month later, on May 29, 1912, the EFD joined forces with Chicago Engine Companies 70 and 112 to tackle a major fire at the Bogart Building on Sherman Avenue. The fire raged throughout the day, destroying the Workers Cooperative Grocery store and the North Shore Creamery on the first floor, as well as apartments on the upper levels. Total damages reached $16,700, making it one of the ten worst fires in Evanston’s history up to that point.
In the summer of 1913, the EFD introduced the "Lung Motor," a mechanical resuscitator that proved to be a lifesaver. The device had been tested at Evanston Hospital the previous October and was so effective that the department was awarded $25 by the Life Saving Devices Company of Chicago as the “Top Life Savers in the Nation†at the end of 1913.
The Lung Motor became a valuable tool, and the EFD responded to mutual-aid requests from neighboring suburbs and even from Rogers Park in Chicago. Initially placed on the fast-moving Robinson auto-truck at Station #1, the device was soon taken out of service too often. In 1916, when the city replaced its horse-drawn police ambulance with a new automobile model, a joint policy was established. A firefighter from Station #1 was assigned to ride with two police officers in the ambulance during inhalator calls, ensuring the fire engine remained available for emergencies.
The first EFD police ambulance was built by William Erby & Sons on a White Motor Company chassis and served for eleven years before being destroyed in a collision with a bus in September 1927. After that, the inhalator returned to Engine Company 1. By 1952, it was mounted on the EFD’s new rescue truck, Squad 21, and by 1959, inhalators were assigned to all five engine companies, marking a major advancement in emergency response technology.
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