By Sharon Rossino

The Alpine Hose No. 2 is a major historical focus of Georgetown, with its elegant tower standing above all other structures of the town and its steadfast bell chiming the passing hours of each day. The unbroken service history of the Georgetown Volunteer Fire Department is threaded though the fabric of the building. Thus the firehouse with its six-story bell tower is an irreplaceable asset of the Georgetown-Silver Plume National Historic Landmark District.

Because of this iconic importance, Historic Georgetown, Inc., has partnered with the Town of Georgetown, the Georgetown Volunteer Fire Department, and the Clear Creek Fire Authority to request a grant for $146,000 from the Colorado State Historical Fund to help finance the rehabilitation and future planned interpretive exhibit of the Alpine Hose No. 2. If the project is funded, the Alpine Hose No. 2 building would house an interpretive exhibit that would be unique to the Rocky Mountain region. This project would greatly enhance the museum system in the Landmark District and would transform the Alpine Hose into a wonderfully restored firehouse, to be interpreted within the context of 19th-century western history. The museum would highlight western mining-town firefighting techniques, firefighting technology, and volunteerism culture in Georgetown, thereby helping to tell the story of the development and decline of this boom-and-bust mining town in the Rocky Mountains.

Other grants that are pending for this project are a Save Our History Grant for $10,000 and one from the 1772 Foundation for $30,000. Currently, about $27,500 has been committed from sources such as the Georgetown Volunteer Fire Department Capital Fund, the Henry Anderson Fund, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation Peter Fund. HGI needs to raise an additional $8,000 from private donors. If you would like to make a monetary contribution toward the success of this project, or if you have firefighting memorabilia that are original to Georgetown and would like to donate them to be on display in the museum, please call the HGI office at (303) 569-2840.