Caption: Old Fairmount Engine House, Ridge Avenue at Vine Street, circa 1880

• "Shortly before this photograph was made, Thomas Shaw, who advertised as 'Inventor and sole manufacturer of Steam, Vacuum, Hydraulic and Blast Gauges,' and other similar machines, had moved into this old firehouse. The Fairmount Fire Company, to which the house originally belonged, was established in 1823, though the house dates from a later period. Shaw had not yet seen fit to make any structural changes in 1880, for the building still retained its double doors, gallery and watch tower."--OPEP, p. 112.