The Old Fire Bell

[Updated January 14, 2023]

Hanging beside Cuba City's fire station is a real piece of local history: the city's fire bell.

The bell was cast in 1897 by the Centennial Bell Foundry in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The foundry, owned by Scottish immigrant, Gardiner Campbell, was well known in the U.S. and beyond and was responsible for the 11-ton bell in Milwaukee's City Hall.

Probably one of the first images of Cuba City's fire bell can be seen in the photograph below. Cuba City was incorporated as a village in 1891, and you can see the first village hall, complete with a fire bell, at the left in this picture. This original village hall stood where MidwestOne Bank is today.

Image published in the Cuba City Centennial history, 1975.

The bell was hanging and ready for service by the time the below fire insurance map was created in February 1900. The map contains a note describing the city's firefighting capabilities, which includes mention of a "bell alarm."

Detail from a fire insurance map by the Sanborn-Perris Map Co., February 1900.

In 1917, the fire bell was temporarily moved to the village's water tower, located in the northwest corner of today's Veteran's Memorial Park. In March 1921, the bell found a more permanent home in the new village hall on Main Street, visible below.

Image from a postcard published by the L. L. Cook Co., Milwaukee, 1952.