(inspirational music) - [Alan] There's an old one-room schoolhouse here where today's lesson will be in history.

- Girls would sit on that side of the classroom, boys on this side of the classroom.

- [Alan] We'll take a close look at a pair of murals that were recently rediscovered in an old home, restored, and are now free for everyone to examine.

- These two pieces needed to be in a very special spot where so many people could see them.

- [Alan] And later, go inside the Jamestown Fire Department Memorial Museum, (bell ringing) where pride and service are on full display.

- This is an 1894 horse-drawn, third-size LaFrance Pumper.

- [Alan] This is "Treasures Inside the Museum."

(inspirational music) (soft music) Charlestown, Rhode Island has a centuries-long history that is chronicled on this small campus by the local historical society.

The site includes a fully-restored schoolhouse from the 1800s.

A separate museum building next door is packed full of archives and artifacts that collectively tell the story of the local community.

- Charlestown is so diversified.

Most people think of it as a sleepy coastal village.

Our history includes, as most other places, thousands of years of American, Native American history.

We have a plantation history from Newport that expanded out here in the 16 and 1700s.

We have naval airfield here, a naval airfield from World War II where George Herbert Walker Bush trained.

The history is phenomenal.

The Post Road, the old buildings that are still standing, just like many old New England towns, but we feel ours is very special for our diversified geography.

And I love Charlestown.

- There was just a wealth of information about our town from the very beginning, you know, up to pretty much today.

It's just a outstanding display, one that we should all be very proud of, not only in Charlestown, but for Rhode Island as a whole.

- [Alan] Charlestown resident Frank Glista is carrying on a family legacy started by his mother and her best friend over a decade ago honoring the history of the nearby airfield and the airmen who lost their lives there.

- The air base was referred to Charlestown Naval Auxiliary Airfield and it changed designation from time to time, as it was put in caretaker status before the Korean War and then was brought out of caretaker status.

But basically that's the designation that we refer to it as, NAAF.

After Pearl Harbor, the War Department set up towers and also had aircraft observation schools and we had one here in Charleston.

Of course, we were afraid of aerial attacks at that point.

That was the reason they were set up.

The air base was under construction at that time.

And in 1943, when they started operations, my mother and Millie both took employment there.

Between 1943 and 44, George Herbert Walker Bush was here training, learning the skills about night flying, then became the 41st president of the United States.

- [Alan] One of the treasures here is a piece that pilots at the airfield would be very familiar with.

- A dear friend of mine approached me one day and he said he found something in Ninigret Park and he wanted to bring it over.

And when he did, I noticed in the back of his truck was this very damaged, rotted-out, what appeared to be a bomb.

After a long journey down some historical pictures and documents, I realized it could possibly one of the bombs that is in the picture behind me where the officers would enter and exit and there were two bombs on either side.

These were basically dummy bombs.

They were never live.

They were used for the aircraft for practice where they would fill them with sand and they would drop them and they'd get the lift factor.

So I ended up restoring it.

It took me about two years to do it.

I had a lot of help in doing it and Larry Webster, who was our naval historian here in Charlestown regarding the airbase, was able to find a document showing the stencil, which you see there now.

I had that remade.

So this is as close to as perfect as I can get something that is 78 years old.

(inspirational music) - [Alan] There are a number of other pieces of military history related to the airfield displayed inside the museum, including many with a local connection.

Visitors will also find an extensive collection of photographs and documents relating to all facets the town's past.

It's a story that continues at the former naval field itself.

- You had a lot of men who passed away, especially during the World War II years.

With that, they started thinking about how these men should never be forgotten.

And a lot of them were just boys, basically.

And they decided to see if they could get the town to give them some property and create this memorial.

The town council gave 'em approval, gave 'em an acre of land, gave 'em approval to do the memorial.

A lot of research to get all the names.

All 62 pilots died in training and there are designations around the monument.

- [Alan] One of those 62 names came into clearer focus a few years ago.

- There was a pilot who passed away in 1945.

It was Kenneth McQuady and he took off from his runway and his engine failed and he perished in the icy waters of Ninigret Pond.

Plane exploded and he was instantly killed.

Kenneth McQuady had a six-month-old daughter at that time, so she never got to know her father.

About five years ago, Larry Webster made contact with her and she came up to the memorial site.

When you saw that woman come and put her hand on her father's name, it's just remarkable.

I mean, and that's why, you know, the monument is so important.

(soft music) - [Alan] In 2004, the prop from McQuady's plane was pulled from Ninigret Pond and now sits near the memorial that bears his name.

The Charlestown Town Hall, like town halls across New England, is dedicated to history and serves as a repository of local archives and memorabilia.

Inside the council chambers here, visitors will find a pair of rare murals with a rich history.

- These two pieces we're looking at today were discovered in the Card House in Charlestown, Rhode Island.

The Card House was built in 1732.

It remained in that family until 1982.

The owners of the house at the time I first viewed the artwork were Tom and Patty Ready, and they believed that this was a very special grouping that they had found and they knew they wanted to save it.

So they did contact the historical society.

We right away invited other people to view them and realized that, yes, we needed to save these very rare antique specimens.

Not normal artwork at all by any means for a historical piece.

But at that point, we all realized that we had something very special here.

- [Alan] Very special pieces that would need specialized care.

- They were done on horsehair plaster and that was connected to lath, which is what they used to construct older homes.

And on top of that, they were constructed to very heavy pieces of wood, most likely chestnut, we believe.

They weighed each over 250 pounds.

So we needed many men to lift them and very gingerly carry them to a flatbed truck to move them.

The stenciling is a very rare form of artwork in human form.

In fact, the only other place they have been found was up in New Hampshire of also presidential figures.

Other than that, no other recorded artwork of this type has been found.

There's similar style of artwork which was discovered in Wickford, Rhode Island.

Unfortunately, we don't have any name on the pieces because so much had disintegrated around the edges and as you can see, the conservator tried to recreate or smooth over as much as she could.

There were quite a few nail holes going through their faces and other parts of the art.

So we were fortunate that it could be saved.

George was a very easy piece to identify rather quickly.

He unfortunately had two nail holes right through his head as well.

Our conservator, Katey Corda, jumped right on it and knew what she had to do, but it was a very long and meticulous process.

In that picture, you can see an early version of the American eagle, Lady Liberty, and what we believe are the 25 stars that were indicating the 25 states that existed at that time.

That's what actually triggered us off to the timeframe of when they were done.

The Marquis de Lafayette did come to visit 50 years after the Revolution and you will see that this is most likely why he was painted alongside with George Washington's murals.

(soft music) The truth of it is there were so many pieces that are too large to fit in small museum buildings and some pieces just need to be where they are located for historical reasons.

These two pieces needed to be in a very special spot where so many people could see them.

They would not fit in our museum, nor would we want to have them in there.

So we were very grateful when the town invited us to put them here.

I think they knew very well that this was where they should be.

- [Alan] A much larger restoration project was restoring one of eight schoolhouses that was built in Charlestown in the 1800s.

Schoolhouse number two was being used as a home and 4-H meeting place before falling into disrepair.

- The owner offered us the building, so we purchased the building, I think for a dollar or something of that nature.

It was moved from Quantico Tog, where it was originally built in 1838.

In 1973, it was moved to this location.

(inspirational music) As you enter the building, you'll notice that there are two doors.

The door on the right is for boys.

The door on the left is for girls.

The boys entered through that door on the right because it has a basin and a pump located just to the left as they enter.

The boys quite often had been working in the fields and so when they came in, they were dirty and needed to clean themselves up.

The kids would come in.

The teacher would have assignments for all different levels of achievement.

Girls would sit on that side of the classroom, boys on this side of the classroom.

Their assignments quite often involved learning to read, write, and also cipher, what they call ciphering, mathematics.

It was very considered very important for the young girls to learn how to read, write, read the Bible, and conduct correspondence with other relatives.

Also, the girls were expected to know the ciphering because they had to do measurements for cooking and measurements for making clothing.

The boys would come in and they would get a lot of the same things, but for different reasons.

So they could keep track of the figures involved in how much money they were making, how much money they were laying out for other things for equipment and whatever for the farm needs.

The map in the back of the room is a treasure of the first order.

It's an Augustus Mitchell map from 1856.

You could teach a year's history using that map.

There are so many things about it that make it spectacular.

The bottom part of the map is a listing of all the counties in the United States by state with the population based on the 1850 census.

This is a slate board.

It was a slate that a child would have.

Paper was at a premium and so they would do their writing on here and erase it just like you would erase a blackboard or a slate board or a whiteboard, I guess.

The schoolhouse had originally black boards, boards painted black, and that's really what a blackboard is.

This is a slate board in front of us right now.

One of the things the kids would ask about is why there are holes in the desk and we would tell them they were for ink wells.

And these are a few of the ink wells that we have that were in the desks still when we purchased or actually acquired them.

The ink wells would go in there and the kids would use a quill feather to dip into the ink well and then to write on paper when they had paper available.

Paper was at a premium, so the slate boards what most of the time what they would write on, especially if they were doing math work.

- [Alan] Alan Angelo is no stranger to a classroom.

He spent most of his life teaching.

And today, in this classroom, history is being taught.

- To me, education is everything.

You know, this building is an 1838 building.

Before it, people didn't do things exactly the way they did after having come here and getting taught by teachers in a one-room schoolhouse or in a multi-room schoolhouse.

Education brings us to the present.

(soft music) - [Alan] It's an important part of the mission of the historical society, a community effort made possible by a dedicated group with a common passion and love for the town they live in.

- I love history.

I grew up loving archeology.

I am so committed to it, reading about it, teaching about it, learning about it, but more importantly, sharing it with other people and seeing their reaction and marveling about our history is so meaningful to me and so many others.

- It's just remarkable what a group of volunteers have put together.

I'm really proud of it.

They've done a great job.

(inspirational music) (siren wailing) - [Alan] On any given day, you might see an old firetruck or two making its way through the streets of Jamestown.

The old engines no longer respond to emergencies, not the way they used to, anyway.

Today, they mostly come out for parades and local civic events.

These firetrucks are part of a larger collection at the Jamestown Fire Museum, a place rich in history and artifacts.

- When you come into the museum, you'll see a sliding pole, brass pole.

You go upstairs, you'll see the top of the brass pole, the gate to enter the brass pole, slide.

You'll see different nozzles, radio equipment, helmets, jackets, coats from different departments.

There's an enormous patch collection on the walls and we have a library full of photos and books that you can actually sit down and go through.

- [Alan] On the main floor of the museum are two of the oldest pieces in the collection, including the town's very first steam-powered pumper.

- This is an 1894 horse-drawn, third-size LaFrance pumper purchased by the town of Jamestown in 1894 for the sum of $3,300.

Small community, probably 1,200 to 1,500 year-round residents at the time.

So to purchase something like this was a big deal back in those days.

(inspirational music) Basically it's a giant teapot.

So you open the door in the back, you put your coal or your wood or whatever you have that burns.

It has a water jacket boiler.

When you start the fire, it actually creates steam in the cylinder.

The steam comes through here, you open a valve up, steam goes into a slide valve, which tells it what piston to put the steam into.

The steam pistons go up and down and they come down and drive the pump, which is down here.

We haven't run it in a few years, but it will work without an issue.

- [Alan] As much as this is an example of early firefighting technology, it's also a connection to many chapters of local history, including one memorable day along the town's waterfront.

- The biggest fire it worked on was in 1912, the Thorndike Hotel fire, which was on the waterfront, which was a really large hotel and this was the principle piece used in that fire.

This nozzle was actually used at the fire.

- [Alan] The fire was so big that additional help came over from Newport to help battle the flames.

But in the end, the hotel was destroyed.

The steam engine was eventually retired and took up residence at The Breakers in Newport, and later was abandoned outside for a few years.

When it found its way back to Jamestown for restoration, a decorative eagle was missing, until one day a local woman called up.

- She said that she had an eagle that came off a firetruck in Newport.

Well, typically firetrucks don't have eagles.

So I contacted her.

She sent me a picture of the eagle and it was the eagle that was stolen off of the fire steam engine in the 1940s or 1950s when it was in Newport.

And she gave it to us.

She gave it back to us because, you know, she wanted to go where it belonged and we have it today downstairs.

- [Alan] The Jamestown Fire Department has always relied on volunteers, and for most of the 20th century, firefighters would be summoned using this simple system.

(bell ringing) - The Jamestown Fire Department uses a traditional telegraph fire alarm system and this device, as a telegraph box is tripped, is hooked to a whistle or an air horn that will sound one blast for every time that the box comes in.

So this piece was run by weights.

Back in the old firehouse, this all used to be up in the tower, so you'd have to climb up and crank the handle here to get the weight to go up.

And so after every box, somebody would be assigned to go and climb up in the tower and reset the system and crank the weight back up.

So if a person has a fire at their house or they see a fire at their neighbor's house, they would go to a telegraph box, which you would see on a telephone pole, and they would pull the box.

That box number would be printed on this card.

And as the box came in, it would trip so many times, indicating which box was sounding.

And all the firefighters in town would listen to that number being blown over the whistle and would respond to the fire station and would be able to look up again on the card and see where they needed to go to, whether it was an intersection or if it was a building that actually had its own dedicated fire alarm box.

(bell ringing) Back in the forties and fifties, the horn was used multiple times for different communications.

There used to be a signal for no school.

And then I believe in the sixties, there was actually a riot signal, which I believe was box nine.

- I think it was the jazz festival, they had riots, a riot or two or something over there.

And so most of those people would come through Jamestown to go to Newport and they would stack up here and have to wait for the ferry boats to come in to go to Newport.

And so a lot of people here and the locals were very concerned with the possibility of riots while waiting to get on the ferry boats.

So the department had a special alarm code.

- And if that signal was sounded, that meant that the police department needed help and the volunteers would come down and gather at the station and find out what was going on and then go assist as needed.

- [Alan] There are many other pieces exhibited at the museum that chronicle the evolution of the local fire department, including a variety of different communication devices.

- We have a series of field phones that are actually connected in different places where we can actually crank 'em up and talk to people or kids can talk to people on the other side in the museum, which is kind of interesting because you can actually talk on a wire, not just a cell phone.

One of these actually came from Fort Wetherill in Jamestown from the Army.

We also have radios.

These radios are post-World War II radios given to the department or the Department of Quiet in the early fifties, early sixties, somewhere in there.

Over the years, they disappeared.

They were thrown out, they vanished.

Nobody could find a radio until one day, one of our chiefs was at Rocky Hill Flea Market and bought this radio for a dollar.

And when he got it back, it said "Jamestown Fire Department" on it.

So now this is in the museum and since then, through people's attics or in their basements, we've come up with the other two.

The three that we originally have are back in the museum.

It shows where where we were and where we are today.

And it's changed a lot.

I mean, you know, from this to the small portables to the cell phones we have now to the pagers to the field phones, which up until not too long ago, the fire department was actually set up with the police department through this still in case of an emergency.

- [Alan] Like the old steam engine, the radios have returned home, and now, together with many other artifacts, help to complete another chapter in the history of Jamestown.

(inspirational music) - [Announcer] This program and other episodes of "Treasures Inside the Museum," as well as digital extras, are now available to watch anytime by visiting RIPBS.org or the Rhode Island PBS YouTube channel.

Take a private tour with exhibit curators, get an inside look at the conservation process, and go behind the scenes to see hidden treasures.

Whether you are interested in artifacts, paintings, photography, architecture, or history, you'll be inspired to learn more.