Gamewell fire boxes protected York since the Statue of Liberty. Now they are history

A sentinel of safety on York's streets since 1884, the city’s Gamewell fire alarm system is shutting down. It’s hard to imagine a 140-year-old communication system still in operation in an age where AI is taking over physical buttons via voice and short-lived, disposable appliances are the norm.

In the year the Gamewell system started watching over York, the cornerstone of the Statue of Liberty was laid and the Washington Monument was dedicated. Gamewell was responding to York fires less than 20 years after the American Civil War ended.

The system has stood on city streets waiting to take the call through two world wars and an evolution of transportation systems from horses, electric trolleys to modern-day battery-electric vehicles.

According to a press release on Jan. 18, the city said the reason for shutting down the system is “the availability of parts has become a challenge and the cost of parts and maintenance of the system have become burdensome."

For years, people have been trying to shut it down while others have come to rescue the simplicity of a system that just worked.

In a 2001 story in the York Daily Record, then York Mayor Charlie Robertson said the city could save $100,000 a year cutting the wires loose, but then York Fire Chief John Senft vouched for it, “It not only still works, but remains the fastest way to alert the department of a fire.”

At the time, satellite systems were “seen as a threat” to the Gamewell system.

A 2010 story in the York Daily Record that again discussed the possibility of killing the system describes how it worked, “Operating by telegraph, the system was state of the art, alerting city firefighters through a tapping pattern to the location of the box and then a fire.”

A study at the time conducted by the York City Department of Fire/Rescue Services recommended removing them, “telephones and cell phones became fixtures in American homes.”

But the telegraph system that was designed during a time before telephones were in homes remained.

Fire call boxes were phased out in the 1980s in most cities, mostly because of false alarms, according to Dave Houseal, a central Pennsylvania fire historian cited in a 2007 York Daily Record story. “Philadelphia’s are gone and so are Harrisburg’s… New York City is phasing them out,” he said at the time.

The Gamewell system has had a use other than providing call boxes on the street. It was wired into more modern automatic alarm systems.

“Those using the Gamewell system were notified by letter in February 2022 that they would need to have a third-party fire alarm system other than Gamewell, “ the city press release said.

Ironically, the trigger for replacing the Gamewell system might have been a renovation and preservation effort of the historic Laurel/Rex fire station, a two-story Italianate style firehouse in downtown York. The oldest building, the Laurel engine house was constructed in 1877-1878 as a hand-drawn fire engine house, according to the rexlaurel.com history page.

The city cites the reason for shutting it down in the release as “replacing central system infrastructure at the Rex/Laurel fire stations and the ongoing exorbitant cost and maintenance of the system.”

As the Gamewell system goes silent, “the City of York will pursue the most advanced, efficient, rapid-response fire alarm system possible to replace Gamewell, “ the city said.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: York Pa.'s 1884 Gamewell fire call boxes will soon be gone