Firefighters once tapped cisterns for water

Posted 12 October 2014 at 12:00 am

By Bill Lattin
Orleans County Historian

ALBION – When South Main Street was made wider along the west side of the Courthouse Square in 1954, an old fire cistern was discovered.

There were several around the village that the Fire Department could tap into before there was a municipal waterworks. In other words, firemen had a supply of water in case a fire broke out in one of the buildings around the Courthouse Square.

The Pullman Memorial Universalist Church shows in the background of our photo. The old cistern was being filled in when this picture was taken.