08/04/2023
Today is the 233rd Birthday of the United States Coast Guard, created by Congress on 4 August 1790 as the Revenue Cutter Service.
We're also going to roll in a big Happy Birthday to the other part of the Coast Guard: the United States Life-Saving Service, formed 14 August 1848.
In 1915, the Revenue Cutter Service and United States Life-Saving Service were merged to form the United States Coast Guard.
Happy Birthday Coast Guard Station Kenosha!
"Kenosha Life Saving Crew, by Louis Milton Thiers."
The image show a crew from the United States Life-Saving Service post on Simmons Island conducting drills for the public.
To date the image...This is after the Fire of 1892. We know that not just because the Simmons factory is more than two stories, but because next to the factory, just to the south, is the power house for the first public water works. It was pushed due to the troubles fighting the 1892 fire with lake water and private artesian wells. The power house was built in 1894, after an election where William Farr won on the water works platform by 36 votes, against Peter Jacobs, who ran on not incurring more city debt. This system functioned until water-borne disease outbreaks, especially cholera and typhoid, forced the city to consider a water treatment plant, which was built in 1917 on Simmons Island.
Also visible over the top of Simmons, we see the Malt House, which was the tallest building in town. And probably the spire on the Congregational Church on Library Park, currently Christ the King.
It's probably the second half of the 1890s, because Simmons hasn't expanded down the side of the harbor yet.