Picture Tolland: A Vintage Fire Truck and Firehouse

TOLLAND, CT — The latest installment of the Picture Tolland series takes us back some 80 years to a scene in front of the white garage at the bottom of Bald Hill Road on Dunn Hill Road across from St. Matthews Church.

Tolland Fire Department archives indicate the building was originally the town garage for the Department of Public Works. In 1940, the Tolland Fire Department moved the 1934 Ford fire truck to the upper garage building and it became the fire house.

It served as a fire house from 1940 until 1965, when the Merrow Road fire house (Station 240) was built.

The Tolland Ambulance was housed there from 1965 until 1974, when the white barn behind the jail was converted to the Ambulance building.

The Old Tolland Firehouse in Tolland (TFD)

A few years later, in 1967, Tolland purchased a 4-x-4 mini pumper and the building was reoccupied as a firehouse.

It was finally closed as a firehouse in 1981 and Public Works uses it today for storage.

The following Tolland Firemen in 1940 are shown, left to right: Henry Duell, Charles Szemreylo, Bill Senk, Mike Szemreylo, Jesse Sands and Burt Hallock.