Reading's Rainbow fire company, the nation's oldest, marks 250th anniversary

Mar. 18—Historical accounts of the founding of the Rainbow Fire Company describe two different settings in which a group of civic-minded Reading residents formed the volunteer company on March 17, 1773, which happened to be St. Patrick's Day.

One version, as told Saturday by former William H. Rehr III, a former Reading fire chief in a lecture at Reading Area Firefighters Museum, says that the founders gathered in William Rapp's Bull Bullheaded Taproom in downtown Reading to draw up the charter.

The other version is they met somewhere outdoors.

Whichever version is accurate, Rehr said, they agree on one key fact: the name was inspired by a weather event that afternoon.

"They were having a lively discussion about what the name of the company should be, and on St. Patrick's Day that arguing was probably enhanced by some imbibing of some spirits," Rehr said. "As they were arguing a thunderstorm passed through the area, and as a brilliant rainbow appeared in the eastern sky over Mount Penn, they said, 'Rainbow!' and 250 years later it's still Rainbow."

Rehr, who retired as city fire chief in 2010 after more than a 50-year career as a city firefighter, works part-time for Berks History Center. He gave his talk before an audience of several dozen individuals composed of Rainbow Fire Company members and alumni, fire company history buffs, Reading Fire Department members and retirees and city council members.

Rehr serves as board president of the nonprofit museum in south Reading that was once the Liberty Fire Company firehouse. His talk was part of the museum's celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Rainbow Fire Company.

The Rainbow Fire Company No. 1 claims to be the oldest volunteer fire company in continuous operation — under the same character and under the same name — in the U.S. There are a few other fire companies that can trace their lineage to the 18th century, but they have either transitioned to paid fire personnel, been absorbed by other companies or had a disruption in operations for a number of years, Rehr explained.

There may be no volunteer fire company in the world that can boast as long of continuous operation, under that definition, as Rainbow, Rehr said.

As old as it is, the Rainbow Fire Company was not the first volunteer fire company to incorporate in Reading. Union Fire Company (not to be confused with the volunteer fire company by the same name established in east Reading decades later) was established two years earlier than the Rainbows but that company and its equipment were absorbed by Reading Hose Company in a merger, Rehr said.

Rehr's talk, like the museum's impressive collection, took his audience on a journey from the era of bucket brigades and hand-pulled, manually operated pumpers to the era of horse-drawn steam pumpers and finally to the era of full-mechanization of apparatus in the early 20th century.

The first engine house for the Rainbows, as they were called, was on the south side of Penn Street between Eighth and Ninth streets.

In 1834 when John Prince, a carpenter and Rainbow member, built the company a new building on the south side of Penn street next to the Mansion House, a hotel located at Fifth and Penn.

That year, Jacob Goodman built the company a new hose carriage, since the company by then was using fire hoses following the establishment of the city water system.

In 1840, Rainbows moved to a new firehouse built on a property on North Eight between Penn and Court that was deeded by Henry Nagle.

The Rainbows was the first company to be granted a charter in the city in 1843, which was 1869 revised.

In 1864, Rainbows received their first steam engine, called a large spindly piece of apparatus nicknamed "The Grasshopper," at a cost of nearly $5,000, which was a considerable sum in the late 19th century.

In 1912, Rainbow Fire Company's charter was revised for a third time since the company's founding. Its name was changed to Rainbows Steam Engine Company.

"That was basically a prestige item because if you were listed as a steam engine company you were thought to have the most modern and up-to-date equipment," Rehr explained.

Construction of a new fire station began in 1869 at the northeast corner of Eight and Court, its present location.

Until 1873 all Rainbow apparatus were pulled to fire scenes by hand, Rehr said.

"An unprecedented series of arson fires in 1872 brought two problems to the forefront regarding Reading's fire protection," he said. "No. 1 was how quickly you could report a fire and No. 2 was how quickly you could get apparatus to the fire."

Companies including Rainbows were starting to get steamers to replace hand-operated pumpers. The problem was how to quickly get these steamers, which weighed 2 to 3 tons, to fire scenes.

"Imagine during wintertime," Rehr said. "During snowstorms. The streets were dirt. There were no plows or salt trucks."

One response to that problem was to allow citizens to quickly report fires. The city installed the Gainwell fire alarm system in 1873.

"This was a system of street-corner fire boxes that operated on the basis of the telegraph system," Rehr explained.

A series of impulses would coordinate with the fire boxes in the stations to identify the location of a fire.

"Prior to that," Rehr said, "to report a fire in the city you had to go either to Trinity Lutheran church or the courthouse at Fifth and Penn, tell the sexton.

"The sexton would have to climb the tower with a mallet and ring the bell tower and use a mallet ring the number of times for the ward of the fire location."

In 1873, the Rainbows entered into a contract with a man who provided a team of horses to pull apparatus to the scene, but it was still a slow process getting the animals to the firehouse, much less the scene of the fire.

In 1888, the Rainbows finally got their own horses and hired their own drivers.

In partnership with the city, Rainbow had a 114-foot belltower at Eight and Court constructed behind the firehouse. The impressive brick tower housed a bell that was 5 feet in diameter and weighed over 3,600 pounds.

"For many years that was one of tallest structures in the city," Rehr said.

The tower was demolished in 1966 with the widening of Court Street.

City records indicate that by 1898 the Rainbow Fire Company equipment consisted of four well-trained horses, a steamer, a hose wagon, a street sweeper and express wagon.

Sweeper and express wagons were both means of generating revenue.

"In summertime, the streets would get very dusty so the company filled this big barrel and sprinkled water," Rehr said. "But all the residents had to pay a nominal fee. If you didn't pay a fee, they would turn the sprinkling off when they got to your house, much to the chagrin of your neighbors."

The horse-drawn express wagon was used as a courier service. If there was a fire while making a delivery, the horses would be diverted to the fire station.

Reading officially stopped using volunteer firefighters in 2015, Rehr said, because the ranks of the volunteers had dwindled due to training requirements and the city no longer wanted to assume liability for unpaid personnel.

However, Rainbow Fire Company as an entity continues to exist and its members still meet to conduct business, however minimal that is.

Among the standing-room-only audience in the first-floor conference room of the museum were brothers Alan and David Hoffman of Lehigh County. They said they're part of a community of firefighter history buffs.

Alan, 63, of Macungie, Lehigh County, and David, 56, of Allentown served as volunteers firefighters many years ago with the Red Hill Fire Company in Montgomery County. Along with Rehr's presentation, they said they were impressed with the museum and its many artifacts.

Another was Bill Moore of Newmanstown, Lebanon County. Moore was a volunteer firefighter with Reading Hose Company for more than 10 years in the 1970s and 1980s.

Moore said he grew up in Shillington and was introduced to the volunteer firefighter program through an Explorer post.

He enjoyed learning about the earliest days of the modern firefighting system.

"It's just fascinating stuff," he said.