Comments on: N Beech Street, 1967 – Help Us Out!

By: Ian Fraley

Ian Fraley — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 01:42:07 +0000

I met a retired Portland fire chief who has one of these fire alarm boxes in his home, along with the filing cards that corresponded to the locations of every box in the city. As he explained it to me, it was just as Mike described above..vastly inefficient and almost always a false alarm. The 911 system made them instantly obsolete

By: ZippyThePinhead

ZippyThePinhead — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 06:38:05 +0000

Yeah I got busted in high school for pulling one. I did it right before the Trimet came and I got on thinking I was in the clear ……..until I got a call to the principals office the following day. I felt pretty stupid about the whole thing but then again it was pretty stupid.

By: David Johnson

David Johnson — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 04:27:51 +0000

Those Gamewell fire alarm boxes bring good money on e-bay. Any where from 2 to 4 hundred for one in restored condition. We used to trip one on the corner of Rodney and Holland when I was a little guy walking to Woodlawn grade school. Then we would take off running and/or hide in the bushes to watch the fire truck arrive.They call that misspent youth. LOL.

By: knickatknite

knickatknite — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 16:38:44 +0000

LOL, looks like Tylerman and I posted basically the same comment about a minute apart.

By: knickatknite

knickatknite — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 16:35:48 +0000

Wow, same paint and all! It’s amazing how much the trees and shrubbery have taken over. Oddly enough though, it appears all the baby trees planted on the sidewalk are no longer there…

By: Tyleman

Tyleman — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 16:34:07 +0000

Amazing how much more grown over it is now, compared to the nicely manicured and what appears to be newly-applied bark dust in 1967. Interesting that this seems to be one of the few corners where they paved over the grass median between the sidewalk and the street.

By: JimR on N. Haight

JimR on N. Haight — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 15:30:06 +0000

Just went by it this morning on the way to work. Yup, it’s at Beech and Haight.

By: Miles

Miles — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 14:18:44 +0000

Ah yes, the municipal alarm pullstations,,,
What a pain for the city.
Firstly it was a very expensive system to construct and maintain compared to the very few real alarms the system reported.
Malicious false calls were easily in the hundreds vs any real alarm.
Secondly by the time the system was constructed, virtually all homes, business etc had reliable telephone service.
While a good idea in theory and maybe more so during the early days of a smaller downtown core. By the time the system made its way to the residential areas, it was not practical.

As for the house, It seems to be the same paint job !

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 13:35:41 +0000

yes behind the trees, the stairs are still there too http://goo.gl/maps/fwmrA

By: NativePDX

NativePDX — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 13:22:22 +0000

Haight and Beech? behind the trees

By: Dennis

Dennis — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 13:09:40 +0000

I was just talking about those old fire phone boxes, that where all around town, the other day,