Miniature Shaker Furniture - Shaker Works West

Fine Museum Quality Miniatures since 1996

Miniature San Francisco Fire Alarm Box

Original San Francisco Fire Alarm Box Miniature Replica San Francisco Fire Alarm Box

MINIATURE SAN FRANCISCO FIRE ALARM BOX

A Limited Edition of 50 pieces
9 1/2 x 12 x 2 Mounted on aged Pine board

 

A strikingly accurate memento of the historic city of San Francisco, one of the few major cities in the United States that still maintains an active fire alarm box system as a major part of its protective responsibilities. This box is a historic icon of a proud city in which the reality of fire holds a powerful grip in its history and in the presence of every citizen.
 

The following paragraph is printed on the parchment background:


This is an exact 1/3 scale replica of perhaps America's most celebrated fire alarm box. The first of these boxes was cast in 1866 by the San Francisco Electric company in their own sand casting foundry. Many of the original boxes melted in the 2,700 degree heat of the 1906 earthquake fires, but most outside the fires' range are still in use today. This box, cast in 1899, still stands on the corner of Wawona and 23rd Avenue in the Sunset district and, in 2001, is the oldest dated box still in service in the city. Most of the dates on San Francisco's alarm boxes have been ground off the boxes as they have become collectors items and occasionally turn up missing after the morning fog burns off!


Each exquisitely executed box is separately cast and hand finished to exactly duplicate the condition of the original as it exists today. They are mounted on a 9.5 x 12 inch decorative fiber mat background over printed with the history and significance of the piece. The mount is antiqued hand rubbed aged pine. This unique and original San Francisco miniature art icon is a limited edition of only 50 units.