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Steven Henshaw: Children meet Santa in splendor of Victorian parlor of Reading firefighters museum
Reading Eagle - 12/12/2021
Dec. 11—Brittany Steigerwalt of Reading likes to take her 7-year-old son, Josiah, to as many events in the community as possible.
The youngster, who has autism, just loves trains and trucks, which made Saturday's visit to the Reading Area Firefighters Museum a no-brainer for Steigerwalt.
The museum hosted a special Christmas event. Children under 16 were admitted free and could get a one-on-one with Santa Claus in the Wanamaker Room, a Victorian-decorated parlor on the second floor.
It's the third time the museum, housed in the 19th-century three-story building at South Fifth and Laurel streets that was home to Liberty Fire Company for more than a century, has hosted the December event. It skipped 2020 due to COVID-19.
Josiah and his mother have been to all three.
John Trimble, the curator of the impressive displays of fire apparatus from horse-drawn and hand-drawn pumpers to the early diesel-powered apparatus, said attendance was down this year from the previous events.
Parents had to buy a $5 admission tickets for the event, which was held over four hours. In 2019, 90 tickets were sold, but only about 30 were sold this year. Trimble believes concerns about the recent community spread of COVID is the reason.
The light attendance just made it easier for the volunteers to give Josiah a nearly exclusive tour when he arrived about noon
After talking to Santa, Josiah made his request for Christmas — a Thomas & Friends train — he and his mother went on the tour of the displays downstairs.
He climbed onto the 1931 Buffalo fire engine and sat behind the wheel, donning a Depression-era hat, as Blaze, the museum's doggie mascot, encouraged him to ring it's bell. The museum got the engine back in July with much fanfare, 55 years after it was last used by the LIberty Fire Company, and it is displayed prominently.
Board member David Silcox demonstrated the box alarm system, which was used well into the 20th century to provide an electronic signal to firehouses to respond to a specific area of the city
for a structure fire.
Josiah and other visitors to the museum Saturday had the privilege of seeing the newest addition to the museum, which happens to also be the oldest artifact.
The 1770 Richard Mason hand engine arrived Thursday from Bernville Fire Company and originally served the Robesonia Furnace Fire Brigade.
Saturday's event was the third child-centered event the museum has hosted since early October. It hosted a fire safety and prevention event Oct. 9 and Ghost Stories with local author/storyteller Charles Adams III on Oct 16.
In addition to educating youth about the history of firefighting, tickets sold for adults who accompany children help raise funds for the nonprofit museum, which is independent of the city fire department, Trimble said.
For information about future events, visit and follow the Facebook page for the Reading Area Firefighters Museum
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