The Siren Board

Looking for help with a historical project for a hospital client. The attached photo shows a telephone pole with a basket of some sort at the top. Later photos of this location show the pole as a telephone pole, with wires, etc. Can anyone help us identify what is at the top of the pole? It is dated somewhere between 1894 and 1915.

Thanks. John M.

Perhaps a street light or an enclosed fire bell? At the turn of the last century, many cities had solenoid-struck fire bells on poles in various parts of town.

We have later photos of that pole and, at that time, the pole is supporting telephone wires. And, at the bottom there appears to be a small box that might have been a pull-switch for a siren or alarm of some sort.

Just a wild-@$$ guess here, based solely on the shape of the housing, but it looks a bit like a Decot to me. Not sure if the timeframe is right, though...

Someone else mentioned a Decot to me, too. But what about the "basket" underneath? In google searches I haven't seen anything like that. Almost like a crow's nest on a ship mast. And later pictures we have show it gone and replaced by telephone wires and their cross-beams. And, in the later photos, the pole was cut down shorter (or a newer, shorter pole replaced this one).

mazmania07202+ wrote:Someone else mentioned a Decot to me, too. But what about the "basket" underneath? In google searches I haven't seen anything like that. Almost like a crow's nest on a ship mast. And later pictures we have show it gone and replaced by telephone wires and their cross-beams. And, in the later photos, the pole was cut down shorter (or a newer, shorter pole replaced this one).

It kind of looks like it may tie into some guy wires to keep the top of the pole from swaying in the wind too much.

That sure looks like a Decot to me.

Looks a tad bit like a Darley Champion to me, but I think those are anachronistic for the time period mentioned in the original post.

stormsetter4 wrote:That sure looks like a Decot to me.

Decot 10/16?

Would anyone know if it was used for fires, or air raids, or both, or some other purpose, and if it could have been installed by the City of Elizabeth, a state department, or federal agency of some sort?