Friendship Firehouse Festival 2022

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Image courtesy of the Friendship Firehouse Museum and the Office of Historic Alexandria

The Friendship Firehouse Festival is Saturday, Aug. 6. The free festival will be held on the 100 block of South Alfred Street between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. to celebrate Friendship’s 248th year. Come see the Friendship Fire Company’s 1851 hand-operated fire engine before it goes out for conservation treatment. Learn about fire safety today and yesterday and see City firefighting equipment up close. There will be music, displays by community organizations, craft vendors, and food and beverages available. Children will receive free toy Friendship firefighting helmets. This family event is presented by the Friendship Veterans Fire Engine Association and Historic Alexandria.

The Friendship Fire Company, established in 1774, was the first fire company in Alexandria. Today the Friendship Firehouse, built in 1855, is a museum open to the public. The Festival will be the last opportunity to see Friendship’s 1851 hand-operated suction engine – elaborately decorated with the company’s clasped-hands insignia – before it is sent for conservation treatment. The restoration is possible thanks to the generous support of the Friendship Veterans Fire Engine Association, Alexandria Association, Historic Alexandria Foundation, and many individual donors.  

Friendship’s newly restored 1858 hose-reel carriage will also be on exhibit. This ornate apparatus was made by local craftsman Robert F. Prettyman. It is painted midnight blue with white decorative piping, has gilded decorative shields flanking each side of the reel, red wheels decorated with blue and gold striping, and a brass lantern and bells.

For more information see https://www.alexandriava.gov/FriendshipFirehouse and https://www.friendshipfireco.org/. The Friendship Firehouse Museum is owned and operated by the City of Alexandria and administered by the City’s Office of Historic Alexandria.