The 1852 Hunt · DETOUR · Fenway
Every fire alarm box in Boston has reported to this building on the Fens since 8 a.m., December 27, 1925.
Every street fire alarm box in Boston reports to one limestone building on the Back Bay Fens, and has since December 1925. It took a special act of the Legislature to put it on the parkland. The inscription across its front says exactly what it was built to fight. Read it from the park path.
This is a detour on The 1852 Hunt.
The plate
The Office in the Fens
Collected on site
59 The Fenway, Back Bay Fens
Directions
1
The IEEE describes the office as standing about 250 feet from the nearest building.
More footnotes on the story card, in the app.
Sources (6)
- Fire Alarm Office @ 59 Fenway, Back BayBoston Fire Historical Society · n.d. (accessed Oct 2026)
- History of the Boston Fire Alarm Telegraph SystemJoe Maurath Jr., Yankee Pole Cat Insulator Club newsletter, via insulators.info · August 1997
- Milestones: Electric Fire Alarm System, 1852IEEE / Engineering and Technology History Wiki · Dedicated Oct 1 2004
- Early System Design and ConstructionBoston Fire Historical Society · n.d.
- Fire Boxes (PublicSafety/OpenData MapServer layer 1)City of Boston GIS · Data dated 2015 per Alarm Club; layer has no date fields
- Alarm Club - The Record, Build spec and Dorchester Reporter call prep (internal source-of-truth pages)Alarm Club / Third Polar Arch · Sept-Oct 2026