The 1940 Fire House: The Building the Whole Valley Turned Out For

Town & History

May 4

On the evening of Saturday, May 18, 1940, a reported four thousand people came to Boulder Creek to watch a building get dedicated.

For a town of a few hundred, the dedication became a valley-wide event.

The day

The Santa Cruz Sentinel reported it on Sunday, May 19, 1940: "Crowd Of 4000 Sees Boulder Creek Fire House Dedicated."

There was a parade of fifty floats and vehicles, led by grand marshal Santos Ornes, a descendant of one of the valley's pioneer Spanish families, followed by the Boulder Creek high school band and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Celebrants turned out in logger and frontier outfits, some of them wearing several weeks of beard for the occasion. The route ran down Central Avenue to Redwood Rest.

Then a potluck dinner, a boxing program, and dancing at Locatelli's.

Dr. G. L. Fleming was general chairman. Clyde Larsen chaired the dedication program itself. Reuben Ralston was president of the fire department.

The building

The fire house cost $13,000 and was built to double as a community center. A town that had been meeting in whatever hall was available was getting a room of its own.

The Evening News special section of May 17 describes it as a "dignified grey stucco building," designed by architect Lynn Duckering of 27 Front Street, Santa Cruz.

It was built under the supervision of O. P. Berthelsen, described in that same section as a man "who has at one time or another, either constructed or worked on nearly every structure in Boulder Creek."

If the description was even approximately true, Berthelsen connected the new fire house to a large share of Boulder Creek's built fabric.

The fittings the paper thought worth mentioning say a lot about 1940:

a reversible furnace that doubled as an air conditioner
modern spring track doors
an outdoor alarm box that triggered the siren
a siren that could also be set off by telephone
an American LaFrance engine in the bay

And the donations say a lot about the town:

landscaping given by Ray Hartman of Leonard Coats Nursery, Santa Cruz
Venetian blinds by the Boulder Creek Improvement Club
the flagpole by H. B. Spencer and Dr. W. E. Stires

Duckering advertised the following year as the architect of the new fire house and the reconstruction that made Boulder Elementary School earthquake-resistant.

What was on display

The department brought out its history. Alongside the new American LaFrance and an old Ford outfit sat the first fire-fighting equipment the town ever had: a secondhand hose cart donated decades earlier by R. C. Kirby of Santa Cruz.

The Sentinel used the occasion to explain where the department came from:

But it was fire, the uncontrolled outburst of 1891, which burned off a solid block of buildings and threatened the whole village, which brought about the fire department.

Somewhere behind the new building, in a shed, sat the McKinley Bell, waiting for a campanile that would hold it. It had hung over the old firemen's hall for years. A 1929 letter quoted in the department's 1940 history identified it as the Golden Jubilee bell McKinley remotely set ringing in January 1898. A contemporary report confirms the fair's bell-ringing, but not the bell's later path to Boulder Creek. The full account is in the fire department's history.

The oldest man in town said something worth keeping

The dedication is also the occasion on which Boulder Creek's origins got recorded, more or less by accident.

W. S. Rodgers, then 87, community leader, historian, and one of the town's first school trustees, still holding that position after roughly seventy years, told the crowd he had arrived in Boulder Creek on May 11, 1870. And he settled a naming question:

Some say that this used to be called Dogtown. I deny that. But it did have the name of Stumptown until we got busy and cleared out the stumps, built houses and made a real community out of it. Then we got a new name, Boulder Creek.

He described settlers building a little redwood schoolhouse with donated lumber and labor, and one settler's wife teaching for six months without pay so the community could qualify for state aid. He said the first cash money in the valley came from tanbark sold to the Santa Cruz tanneries.

A county apportionment table from November 1872 shows a funded Boulder Creek school district drawing state and county money. An 1879 report on tanbark peelers in the valley documents the trade Rodgers remembered.

Two of the town's first pupils were still alive to be named that day: Fred Brimblecom and George Notley. Alongside Rodgers, Santos Ornes and Mrs. Catherine Cahill were honored as the oldest surviving pioneers.

Rodgers put the railroad's arrival in 1884. The contemporary record has construction under way in March 1885 and passenger service advertised at the end of April. His recollection was a year early.

What we still do not know

The available records do not establish whether the 1940 fire house is the structure now standing on Central Avenue or whether it was later replaced or rebuilt. The 1931 Sanborn sheet was not digitized, so the present building should not be identified as the 1940 structure without a district or property record.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was the Boulder Creek fire station built?

The fire house was dedicated on Saturday, May 18, 1940, at a cost of $13,000. It was designed as a combined fire station and community center.

Who built the Boulder Creek fire house?

Architect Lynn Duckering of Santa Cruz designed it. Construction was supervised by O. P. Berthelsen, who the 1940 papers say had worked on nearly every structure in Boulder Creek.

How many people came to the dedication?

The Santa Cruz Sentinel reported a crowd of 4,000, with a fifty-float parade, a potluck, a boxing program, and dancing at Locatelli's.

Was Boulder Creek once called Stumptown?

According to W. S. Rodgers, who arrived in 1870 and spoke at this dedication, yes. He also specifically denied that it was ever called Dogtown. More on the town's names in how Boulder Creek got its name.

If your family knows what became of the McKinley Bell, please get in touch.

Sources

Links checked 4 September 2026.

Adrienne Gaughan