On August 15 1901 a meeting was held at the borough hall which led to start of Perseverance Volunteer Fire Company No 1 and on October 4 1901 with 23 active members. At that time facilities were few and equipment scarce and ill suited for the work,but with a real pioneering spirit that nucleus of 23 men built an organization that Souderton can still be proud of today. Fighting its way up from the bucket brigade, the firemen rapidly progressed using two 1896 hand drawn hose carts until 1910 when a horse or hand drawn ladder wagon was added. In 1912 a hand drawn 45 gal. chemical cart was purchased. The year of 1918 saw the beginning of motorization with the addition of a 1917 Ford Model T chemical truck with two 30 gal. chemical tanks. In 1920 the first motorized pumper was purchased a 500gpm. Packard which was the envy of all the communities around and our first toward modernized fire equipment.
On August, 6 1915 a motion was made and carried to purchase a lot on Main Street from H.S. Souder for $1290. On January, 7 1921 the mortgage for the lot was paid in full and destroyed. July, 24 1925 the company decided to build on the lot and to get a loan from Union National Bank of Souderton for the sum of $20,000 at 6 % interest to build a new firehouse. The building was dedicated May, 29 1926.
On September, 5 1950 the company purchased a four acre lot on North Second Street for the amount of $7500 for the future site of a new firehouse. In 1954 a three bay garage and a bandstand were build on the lot to be used for carnivals, also at this time a ice skating pond and ball field added. The lot was used for carnivals until 1959 when Montgomery County stopped all gambling.
By 1964 the firehouse on Main Street was over
crowed with five fire trucks an a ambulance there was no room to
walk around anymore. In 1965 the company decided to build a new
seven bay firehouse which would include meeting, storage, chief, and
engineer rooms and a recreation room in the basement. The firehouse
only cost $98,500 dollars to build thanks to over 6,000 hours of
labor donated by the members and support by area businesses. The
first meeting at the new firehouse was held in December, 1966, but
the building was not completed until 1967. The building was
dedicated June 17 1967 and is still in use today with a addition
which was completed 1979 to house our museum and more storage. The
second half of the plan was to build a banquet hall to the rear of
the firehouse, but it was never built.