The Abandoned Fire Alarm 

It’s always sad to see such beautiful buildings go to waste, whether through demolition or ugly-ass gymnasiums

That’s one solid Fire Alarm System! Compared to today’s technology, that thing still rings

The older building were prettier back then in my opinion.

Old school buildings like this make me feel incredibly safe. I hope to save one built in the 40s or 50s someday by buying it, and restoring it to as close to its former glory as I can... also, when you went into the schools basement, I have to say, now THAT is a fire door.

That’s a huge school. Got to love old, vintage stuff.

I love seeing old buildings with rare systems. It is just a shame they're being demolished. They're a historic artifact, and they are treated like garbage

Someone needs to salvage the fire alarm before the building gets torn down or save the old building.

This is very interesting how these old Fire Alarms work back in the day, and can we get some respect for this guy how much effort he put in these videos 💯🔥.

Enjoying your videos very much! I love these old buildings and their mechanical systems. Great choice of music in this one. "Flowers In The Attic" is a strange but neat movie. I'm a sucker for big old houses no matter what the plot is.

My old middle school (1964) has the original horns (simplex 4037s) behind some vents and is being demolished in the near future

Wow, you really know how to put together a top grade production! Thanks for taking the time to research and put in the old photos, and the music you found, so melancholy, and spooky. I don't know if anybody would ever make a full length documentary about old fire safety systems and history, but if they did, I sure hope they would let you help with it. Questions I have, 1) what music piece is used? 2) were the bells a brass finish originally? 3) Is this the oldest control panel you have found so far? Thank you, keep up the grand work :)

the fact that fire alarms in a school built in 1918 are still working even after the school was abandoned is amazing as hell. Meanwhile, i remember a bunch of times where the fire alarm system at my elementary school had issues. one time it malfuncted and the buzzing part wouldnt turn on, or once it wouldnt turn off, once the lights wouldnt turn on, once they couldnt turn the system off, etc. etc.

I don't think I had ever seen how those alarms worked so glad you found one that still works it was a very cool video

I love to see old systems like this. At least we can see some still in action for the time being.

My mom, grandma, etc. would be sad to see their school like this. Also, god vid! Btw, you gave it a visit, how nice!(This is is not the school I’m talking about, I’m using it as a reference.) To me it’s no longer abandoned if you visit every once in a while. Also I wanna hear the song’s name, I like it.

I am also amazed they were still using the 1950s Autocall panel even after that new gym was added in 1980. Usually when something like that happens, the entire existing fire alarm system gets replaced with a new one to make things consistent throughout the school.

It’s a shame to see these beautiful buildings go to waste 😞

Great video. I love the history and technical information, and the music. Totally cool that the old alarm system worked, made when things were made to last.

I recognize this building! My Papa went here for school. It's cool to see the place as it was in the past and as it is now! Very glad the owner hasn't chosen to demolish it. Sometimes we go past it on the way to my school, and I hope someday I'll be able to visit it. It's just so cool to see old buildings, especially schools. It's really quite unfortunate how little people care about these places these days and just have them demolished. My school I'm going to right now has a rather old building that's going to get demolished at the end of this school year, which I'm not very happy about. I totally plan on taking some old stuff from the building before it's demolished. Gotta watch out for asbestos, though- and lead paint. The auditorium was built in 1928 and some of the wires connecting lights contain asbestos. Even with the lead paint and asbestos, I'm saddened it's getting demolished. It has a lot of history to it, so it's unfortunate the renovation costs are so high that it must be demolished. I'm gonna miss this place. Wish I could take a video of the fire alarm before I leave, it's pretty goofy sounding. It kinda sounds like those plastic hand clapper toys, which is fun to hear during drills

Good presentation as always! I trust you are taking protective measures against possible Lead and Asbestos hazards. Thanks for posting and stay safe.

great video! my elementary school built in 1911 has some est system with notifier bells on continuous i attended that school from 2011-2019 [from kindergarten to seventh grade]. now i'm in 8th grade in high school this one has some est system with bells on continuous [forgot the brand] that was probably added in later as the school was built in 1958 fire drills have scared the crap out of me. what i do when we have one is if i have my laptop out: take it and shove it in my backpack which is usually right beside me on the floor then exit with my class with my backpack. if its already in there i just put my backpack on and go go go! also that panel is really cool and the various other autocalls i've seen in your videos cheers for now!

This music goes well with the video, nice work😊

They should probably convert this school into some kind of hotel or apartment.

I truly appreciate these videos not just for the "how things used to work," but also to appreciate the architecture of old school buildings. As an Ohioan, it's a shame when the buildings with personality are destroyed in place of new, bland designs. It's also upsetting to see so many items STILL in the school, like that hole puncher next to the fire alarm system - I could use that, as could any teacher!

Very good video, love the music and ominous feel.

It’s really sad to see these majestic old buildings be demolished. They have so much architectural character and ornate attention to detail that isn’t seen today. Unfortunately where I attended school, Revere High School in Richfield, Ohio (the original building is from 1953 and was added onto in 54, 57, 64, 68, 72, 82, and finally in 1995) will meet the bulldozer in mere weeks. Only the newer 1995 addition is being added onto the new school building. Unfortunately poor maintenance caused the older parts of the building to deteriorate over the years, which is a shame. Here in Dayton, where I live currently, we have a couple old schools (Stivers High School and Wilbur Wright High School) that are still standing. Stivers was completely restored and renovated extensively in 2006 to make it look like it did when it was originally built (it was kept as the school was placed on the National Register of Historic Places). City leaders chose to renovate it because of so many other historic buildings near downtown in that area. Every time I’m downtown and pass by that building I can’t help but look up and admire the detail and character the building has. These buildings were so much more than schools, they were works of art.

with all the stuff going on, i hope you'll be able to continue making videos like these.

There’s an old school right by my house, sadly it’s been turned Into an apartment building, however the two elementary schools were built in 1963, and still run to this day

Yeah, it's too bad such old school buildings get demolished. A few here in Brockton MA ended up with that fate, but there were some others that have been preserved but were renovated at some point, thus removing any original fire alarm equipment. There's a school building that wasn't too far from my old house, built in 1896 and added onto in 1914. The current fire alarm system in place is a Simplex 4207 system, installed when the school was renovated in 1978. They have Simplex 4051 horns on 4050-80 light plates (the horns sound on Continuous while the lights flash via the panel's coding wheel) and 4251-30 break-glass pulls and heat sensors (no smoke detectors.) I know they are currently planning to expand and renovate my old high school, while not as old as the schools you've shown here (it was built in 1969-70) it's still pretty old and in rough shape, and still has much of the original fire alarm equipment in place (Simplex 4040 horns, Edwards 270-SPO pulls, and older heat sensors that are sparsely placed.)

This school is beautiful, I don’t get why it was abandoned. The gym in the middle ruined the very well planned and chiseled aesthetic of the architecture, it makes me sad that a monument like this was disrespected. Many other historical buildings are also being abandoned and torn down like this.

Greetings Old School Fire Alarms, I just love old schools like this, so sad to see a lot of them go! In the video at 5:42 you showed a picture of the fire alarm panel, (im not sure if you are into clocks) BUT, directly above it to the left a little bit was to what I believe was a power supply for a Standard Electric Time Co Clock! I love love love those things! I wonder if you took more pics, it would be cool if it were still there seeing as they still had an older version fire alarm.

I like the music you put with your videos by the way

I love old alarms like this

Makes me sad to see a building pulled down like that, luckly it isn't common here in Australia

I am in awe of how history has been preserved in that building. It's beautiful 😍❤️❤️❤️

I remember that back in late 2011 early 2012, the school i went to back then was having a new building built, the new building was being built alongside where the old building was (i say was as the old building was demolished over the summer in 2012) and when the new building was essentially completed and just needed to have the wiring and stuff like that done, i was among a small group of students who got taken on a tour of it (i think i must have been one of the first students to see the inside of the new building) the old building had a rather unusual layout, where on the upper floors (first, second, and third), on one side, there were 3 classrooms accessible from the stairwell, and on the other side, there were 2 classrooms accessible from the stairwell, there were two stairwells, but normally students were not allowed to directly get from one stairwell to another on the upper floors as it involved going through two classrooms, so we had to go down to the ground floor to access the other stairwell one thing i do remember is that the maths classrooms were back to back on the third floor, there was a connecting door between the two classrooms, and the music classroom was on the third floor as well, and unfortunatly for me, whenever i had music after maths, i had to go all the way down, walk along the coridor, and all the way up again In the country where i live (UK) the manual fire alarm switches here are referred to as call points I am not sure what type of fire alarm system the old building had, but i do remember the fire alarm call points were rectangular with a circular glass window on them, and to activate the alarm you would break the glass window on the call point athough the new building was nicer in some ways (not including the toilets, those were terrible, the walls of the cubicles could shift, so sometimes you couldnt lock the door, or even worse the door could slip off the lock when the walls were pushed, other times you could not get the door open without pushing on the wall of the cubicle, this is the reason why i liked the one furthest from the entrance, as the door for that one was the only one unaffected by the walls being pushed around, and the cubicle was also a bit larger, as the door faced the entrance rather than the side wall), one of the things i wasnt keen on were the fire alarm call points, which were the plastic resettable ones, square shaped with a rectanglular plastic panel which you press to activate the alarm, and they did NOT have a protective cover over them, so it would only take someone tripping over something and them to apply pressure to the call point as they fell, and that would set the alarm off, and indeed it did happen, someone tripped over a bag and set the fire alarm off One of the intresting things of the new building was the class change bells, which was a bell sound played through speakers in the ceiling, and i found out the clocks around the school and the class change bells were linked (the clocks were some sort of werid radio controlled thing which must have been controlled by the same server which handled the bells, as if either of those systems went down, the other one followed, and when the clocks stopped working it was rather intresting to watch, as the hands would start spinning until the clock reaches the exact hour of 12, i do not know if it was am or pm, but the control system on the clocks seemed to care about if it was AM or PM, as one time i observed the clocks do the spinny thing, they went past the hour 12 once, and stopped on it the second time

I have recently gotten into collecting old notification appliances from this time period. I managed to snag the exact same type of device seen in this channel’s 2nd video uploaded as well as the channel icon. It’s a Federal Signal 350 horn and it has the exact same dual projector attachment. It’s basically two single projectors screwed into an adapter that covers the device itself. It is LOUD!!!

them fire alarms are really cool i've been a fan of your work^^

If I had a lot of money, I’d buy this school, and restore it to how it looked in 1918.

Awesome job!!!!

I came for the fire alarm, and leave with a history lesson, which I was very fascinated by. I loved all the pictures of various decades, showing the changes the school went through. I feel quite sad that it's abandoned, as do I many places just like it. I never do see the point in just abandoning perfectly good structures. Sure they're a little rough around the edges, but they're still perfectly good walls and a roof, and don't see why these places can't be converted into something else - a homeless shelter, if nothing else. It's a waste, and a crying shame. That gym...it's equal parts hilarious and frustrating. It's such an ungodly eyesore. Can you tell it's not original to the building? You have this nicely crafted school designed by someone who knew what they were doing...and then you have this...lazy brick box...just kludged onto it. It doesn't match at all, and stands out like a sore thumb. I can only imagine the original architect rolling in his grave as that gym was built.

I live 1.7 miles from Springfield Hospital Center (Carroll County, Maryland) and it is abandoned, and probably dangerous to enter because of the toxic chemicals/fumes, like lead. But it would be cool to explore inside of it

Did this school have some Simplex alarms put in at some point? I saw a Simplex pull station at 7:17 and a horn about 10 seconds later. Also, that Autocall panel gave me some nostalgia to one of the first videos I ever watched. It was your video from about four or five years ago of a panel with similar trouble bells and had the 4030 style horns instead of bells. Thanks for uploading this!

Good job and choice of soundtrack.

Wow! So cool to see that!!

This channel makes me sad, every video the descriptions says "it's being marked for demolition". These buildings have amazing architecture and should be preserved somehow..

Everything has a History, this school did, and now no longer has history to make up for. Also I seemed to notice a Simplex T-Bar at 7:18 . Very interesting. And it is also very interesting that the school still works. I noticed that a black Exit Sign with Red LED Lettering was still on at 7:29. I am surprised that they didn't cut the power to the grid for that school! But it is still sad that such a beautiful piece of history was abandoned and put to waste D: .

At least the power was on to the building and you were able to get the system working. I like the bell sounds way better than the horns

Love the sound of the Old School Alarm! Back to the 🔔, gets my vote!

Its so sad how such beautiful buildings get abandoned only to be replaced by cheap uniform newer buildings that just dont have any real feel to them

That's such a beautiful building, sad to see it in this state

Is there no way to preserve old buildings like this one in the states? In the UK, older buildings that have a significant background or have unique architecture are listed which means that any modifications can only be done with permission from the local authority and demolition is strictly forbidden (unless the building falls into dangerous disrepair)

My high-school was built in 1856! I wonder if they still have some remains of past fire systems somewhere.. (The fire alarms are new ones that just make a siren noise, not as impressive as the older bells and horns..)

I am generally scared of old school buildings, such as these. Just in there.. alone. Scary too me. That music thoo-

The middle school I went to was originally built as the high school in my town and looks very much like this building except the exterior is gray stone instead of red brick. It was torn down last year. :(

The music gets creepier the more close he gets to the pull station

Love those cowbell trouble bells

This is a very cool building. Sad it's in its current state. Hopefully the outcome will be of this results in the building being saved. Nice video. My heart was pounding the entire video.

I hope this school will get better if it's repaired without the fire alarm replacement.

Our current junior high school was built around 1930 and they’re tearing it down in about a month but at least it got to house this past years students as it’s last class and didn’t close years ago

That trip bell is loud with just 1 “ding”

Love these videos, are you making more in the near future?

Ohio! I went to the School for Creative and Performing Arts in downtown Cincinnati. Talk about a beautiful old building. We didn’t even have fire alarms in that building. They just used a tone over the PA system as a fire alarm.

Does this system only go off for a certain amount of time, or does it need to be turned off?

Love the old panel! Also, did you happen to see the fallout shelter that’s indicated to be in the school by the sign in the picture at 4:15 by the left side of the door?

Now if this was a modern day system powered up after all that time it would have let the magic smoke out and complained and moaned about the module failures, NAC issues, supervised problems and just shot its self in the foot

I hope this school isn’t set for demolition.

Stunning video, what's the music that plays around @2:00?

renovation exists btw my school built in the late 50s is gonna get replaced with a new one further up the road by building the new one there and tearing down the current building

Leave that history as it is ... It's fascinating to see

This is a beautiful and wonderful history. I bet this school was wondering during its heyday. I hope this don’t get demolished. I know many old ones have been demolished and I know some of it might be so kids can be in a healthier school and environment. Though I just don’t understand why they couldn’t have made the old schools better and healthier rather then destroy them. Even though I understand new schools look different. Old school may not be the best but they have great history. Of course the guy Tom Tom (or was originally Thomas Long on the other RU-vid page) is me. I still haven’t decided whether to close that page or keep it since I use this one now and rarely go on the other page.

Will you upload more content it's amazing

Another classic building simply abandoned. Do you know what kind of school it was (Elementary, Middle, High)?

When I was little I always thought if someone pulled the fire alarm the school would catch on fire😭

Hundreds o f years old and shows its quality

What’s the other light and switch for next to the one to silence the trouble bell?

I have an old Faraday Unipact bell, and the voltage is 11f. Is that in DC or AC?

7:08 This part made me cry, but seeing this is sad.

Is this building getting demolished next year

I have a 80% chance to get an entire 4002 system from my local fire alarm center. If the project approves, make that 100%

What alarms were given to the south annex and the gym?

so sad. 😭 goodbye School old

Love the video...I hope you had permission from the board to enter

You mentioned in other comments how this building is now privately owned. Is the original fire alarm system still in use? Was it scrapped? Was it salvaged?

my old school near me is soon to get demolished for a new school they have an old fire alarm and the school is still actives for now

Just curious do you get permission from the owners of these old schools to do this?

I seen a abandoned TILECO in Zanesville OHIO built in 1926 or 27 closed down in 1967

The building looks like it was well-maintained, until it was abandoned.

2:26 dang my grandpa was born in 1951. He will be missed and loved. R.I.P Jesus ornelas

At least they attempted to blend with the design in the 1951 addition. Who thought building the gym that way was a good idea?

Any update on this school as of this writing?

LOVE OLD FIRE ALARM HISTORY!!!!

The Old Abandoned Fire Alarm will work again, Mark my words.

There’s no way to try to sneak and pull that alarm 😂

My school has a newer simplex fire alarm system with constant device failure. P.O.S. is always in trouble lol. I would be willing to bet 90% of the components on this system are original. I observed in the boiler room the pull station has a switch as opposed to a button. Is there a reason for this? Is that only used for drills?

That is a great and beautiful school

imagine watching this in VR

Rip fire alarm rip school 😭

Was the circuit breaker box a modern design or old design? I don't think you ever showed it in this video.

Well done Old School Fire Alarms! I am so tempted to go pull the one in the apartment building where I live. 😜