History of the Somerville Fire Department In 1838, Charlestown,
MA authorities paid a sum of $400 to have a two-story wooden
engine-house built at the corner of Washington and Prospect
Streets (this area is property of Somerville today). In this
engine-house, the "Mystic No. 6" was stored. Mystic No. 6 was
not much more than a "tub" measuring three feet six inches long,
by two feet wide. It consisted of an oblong wooden tank sheathed
with metal, pistons which worked perpendicularly, and handsome
lancewood brakes. It could not "draught" water, and all it threw
was water which was poured into it by buckets. A law was
enforced starting that year which required each household to
have two buckets hung in their front hallway. When an alarm was
sounded for a fire, each man was to run with his buckets to the
fire location and lineup with the others to pass the buckets of
water from a well or cistern to the men who operated Mystic No.
6. In 1842, Somerville set off from Charlestown to become a town
of its own. Mystic