During the twilight years of the Victorian Age and the dawn of the 20th century, folks around Bethlehem created activities from simple aspects of daily life – all without the convenience of cell phones, television or CD players.

Whether at seasonal events or patriotic holidays, South Bethlehem residents never failed to line the streets and catch a glimpse of firemen who paraded their shiny horse-drawn firefighting equipment.

On Saturday, Sept. 18, 1897, South Bethlehem's Protection Firehouse on East Fourth Street won special recognition in a parade, as reported in the Bethlehem Globe: "The apparatus, drawn by a corps of shapely men of the company, was a floral bower on wheels, and it carried pretty and precious freight in the persons of little John and Julia Trimble, children of Phillip Trimble, of the company."

The success of these parades brought the community an awareness of fire safety and a need for revenue that supported each firehouse – from new firefighting equipment and feed for the horses to clothing, meals and firefighting gear.

The infancy of firefighting in South Bethlehem during the 1870s had yet to perfect its policy on protecting life and educating the public – and this realization left the community at risk when faced with a devastating fire.

Even into the early 20th century, a number of mistakes that caused fires in daily life were attributed to faulty or careless use of kerosene to heat homes and oil lamps to illuminate them.

Numerous newspaper accounts of death caused by fire describe unsafe use of flammable fluids, especially spills on clothing. Anyone whose clothes caught fire while alone at home faced horrific burns, even death.

In their quest to protect their neighborhoods from destructive fires, civic-minded individuals solicited funds to build firehouses. Typically, each firehouse featured double folded doors on the first floor, where vehicles and pumpers were stored. At the rear of the firehouse, horses were bedded down in stalls with clean straw and a ration of oats and water. On the second floor, a dormitory setting featured beds where firemen slept overnight in the event an alarm sounded that a fire was in progress.

When structures like the E.P. Wilbur Trust Company bank building was erected, towering five stories over West Fourth Street and Broadway in 1910, firefighting practices and technology had to improve with the times. Gasoline-powered fire trucks replaced horses in the firehouses, including an improved fire alarm system installed throughout Bethlehem. After World War II, the Protection Firehouse fell out of use and was replaced by larger, updated firehouses equipped with sophisticated equipment and trained firemen.

By the 1960s, the venerable Protection Firehouse faced an uncertain future at a time when city officials considered debilitated or empty structures "urban blight." Thanks to local organizations, the former firehouse was utilized as a meeting place, which breathed new life into the abandoned building.

During the mid-1970s, a local theater group headed by Bill and Bridget George, Barbara Pearson and Ricardo Viera inspired community support to renovate the abandoned firehouse. In 1981, the result came to be known as Touchstone Theatre. Over the past 30 years, the intimate, 72-seat theater presented original plays and offered a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual regional theater that featured stage arts instruction and elements of theater production – from playwriting to performing.