MASSACHUSETTS LOOKOUTS
EXCHANGE BUILDING (HARWICH)
Barnstable County
March 31, 1885: "The new Exchange Building is 58 x 100 feet, three stories high, and surmounted by a cupola or tower. The distance from the highest point of the tower to the ground is 104 feet. The view from inside the tower is at an altitude of 92 feet, and is magnificent in a clear day. The tower is furnished with a telescope. The building is heated by steam, lighted by gas, and has all the modern conveniences, including water works in all the rooms on the first and second floors. Mr. Snow informs us that the building has cost $43,000." (The Barnstable Patriot)
March 27, 1915: "A dangerous forest fire is raging in the South Dennis woods, which, on account of a heavy northwest gale, is threatening several villages. The fire started yesterday, but was gotten under control during the afternoon.
This morning about 8 o'clock it started up again and in a short time was raging furiously, fanned by the 50-mile gale. Calvin Parker, the fire watchman on duty in the cupola of the Harwich Town Hall, gave the alarm by telephone to surrounding villages, and forces of fire-fighters were sent to the scene from Harwich, Dennis and Yarmouth, and all the railroad section hands were also ordered out to fight the flames.
The fire started between Follins Pond and the Dennis Town Hall, north of the railroad track, and is being driven rapidly in an easterly direction toward the village of South Dennis. Back fires have been started along the north side of the railroad track, in an endeavor to arrest the progress of the flames.
The villages of North Harwich, West Harwich and Dennisport are also in the direct path of the fire, unless it can be stopped, and the inhabitants of those villages are in a state of anxiety, with every available man hurrying to the fire before it gets into South Dennis village." (Boston Evening Globe)
March 26, 1917: "At Harwich the cupola of the Exchange Building has been utilized to advantage as an observation station and has an elevation of approximately 125 feet." (Hyannis Patriot)
April 8, 1918: "The State Fire Warden has authorized a renewal of the fire watch in the Exchange tower for the spring season and Mrs. John Condon is doing duty there." (Hyannis Patriot)
June 24, 1918: "Mr. and Mrs. Condon will continue the fire watch in the Exchange tower, Harwich, only on Saturdays and Sundays until August first when it will be resumed daily again for that month." (Hyannis Patriot)
July 25, 1920: "Mrs. John Condon, the only woman fire observer on Cape Cod, and probably in the state, lives in Harwich, and from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. each day she keeps vigilant watch of the surrounding country for signs of fire. This is the beginning of her third year as fire observer.
The Harwich tower is a previously unused cupola at the top of the Exchange building in the center of the town and commands an unobstructed view in every direction. The tower is approximately 110 feet above sea level." (Santa Fe New Mexican - New Mexico)
November 15, 1920: "Mr. and Mrs. John Condon were relieved from their duties as fire watch in the Exchange tower, Harwich, Nov. 2n, for the season. They will not go on again until next spring." (The Barnstable Patriot)
May 8, 1930: "Members of the fire department extinguished a fire burning in the platform of the South Harwich railroad station last week and threatened the station itself. Mrs. Arthur Chase on watch at the observation tower discovered the fire." (Hyannis Patriot)
June 22, 1939: "Responding to an alarm sent out from a fire observation tower in East Harwich, the town fire fighters found Road Commissioner Alton Hall and his men widening the road. They were scrapping up so much dust that the fire observer mistook it for smoke." (The Billings Gazette - Montana)