Firehouses · Built 1898
Good Will Fire Company No. 4
Established in 1882, the Good Will Fire Company No. 4 serves Pottsville's northeast ward from a Coal & Nichols Streets firehouse whose cornerstone was laid in 1898.
The Good Will Fire Company No. 4 was established on March 4, 1882, organized that May, and chartered on June 19, 1882, to serve Pottsville’s northeast ward. Its current firehouse stands at Coal and Nichols Streets, where the cornerstone was laid on May 1, 1898; the company runs Engine 41 and a brush unit, and the station also garages some American Hose apparatus.
The “No. 4” in the company’s name is a regional, not a local, count: it marks the fourth Good Will company chartered in Schuylkill County, after earlier Good Will companies in Minersville (1867), Frackville (1876), and Port Carbon (1879). Pottsville’s company numbers were never a single continuous sequence with defunct gaps — each number belongs to the company’s proper name and charter order, a point the city’s own fire historians stress.
Sources
- Good Will Fire Company No. 4 — company history (official)
License: publisher - Pottsville Fire Department — Firefighting Wiki
License: reference
Frequently asked
- Why is it "No. 4" if Pottsville doesn't have four Good Will companies?
- The number reflects the fourth company of that name chartered in Schuylkill County — after Good Will companies in Minersville (1867), Frackville (1876), and Port Carbon (1879). It is part of the company's regional charter name, not a Pottsville sequence.