Members of the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department are pictured in 1946 in front of their first home, the Royal Arcanum building on Station Place. The intertwined initials NVFD can still be found on either side of the arched opening where the Seagraves hose trucks were kept. A fire bell hung in the brick tower that once rose from the east end of the building. As the fire department expanded, a suite of second-floor rooms was used by the Firemen’s Club for meetings, card games and social activities. By 1970, space in the Royal Arcanum building had become inadequate for the large fire engines, and the present firehouse was built on Shepard Road with the old fire bell, long since replaced by a siren, installed out front. 

––Ann Havemeyer