Charles Baltzell Rouss was born in the town of Woodville, about 12 miles east of Frederick, Maryland. In the early 1840s the Rouss family, including father Peter Hoke Rouss, mother Belinda Elizabeth Baltzell Rouss, sisters Lizzie and Ginnie, and brother Milton, moved to Berkeley County, Virginia. By 1848 the Rouss family lived at Runnymeade, a farm near the Frederick County border. Reportedly “tired of the monotony of the class room,” in 1851 Rouss left school and went to work earning $1 a week at Jacob Senseney’s mercantile, located near Court Square in Winchester, Virginia. In 1853, Peter Rouss purchased Shannon Hill, George W. Hammond’s farm overlooking the Shenandoah River near Kabletown.
According to most accounts, Rouss was a born merchant. He saved his weekly wages while clerking for Senseney, and at the ripe old age of 18 had enough money saved to open his own store on “the corner of South Loudoun and Boscawen streets.” A sure indication of his success, six years later the 1860 census records reported that the 24-year-old Rouss’ personal estate was valued at $15,000. In 1862, Rouss reportedly moved to Richmond where he continued to operate a store. As did many young Virginia men, Rouss fought for the Confederacy. He enlisted in January 1864 with the rank of private and was assigned to Company B, 12th Virginia Cavalry. At the war’s conclusion, Rouss returned to his father’s farm along the Shenandoah.
A year of farm work was enough for the young merchant, and in 1866 he left the Shenandoah Valley and headed north to New York City. By 1870 Rouss’ personal estate was estimated at $1,250. Ten years after the Civil War, the Panic of 1875 found Rouss “penniless with $51,000 in debts.” However, by the time of his death in 1902, Rouss had changed his middle name from Baltzell to Broadway in recognition of the location of his store, built in 1889, which occupied Numbers 549-555 on Broadway. His New York City store was “stocked with $1,500,000 worth of goods” with “annual sales over $10,000,000.” His wealth was conservatively estimated at $10 million.
Like many wealthy men, Rouss was known for his philanthropy. In Winchester, the city where he got his start, he donated half the funds to build the town hall which was named Rouss City Hall in his honor. He gave $25,000 to a number of fire companies, and today “the volunteers of Rouss Fire and Rescue Co. still respond to city emergencies.” However, his generosity wasn’t confined to Frederick County, Virginia.
Because his father’s home was in Jefferson County and owing to friendships established with Jefferson County men during the Civil War, Rouss made a number of very generous donations to local groups, especially to the “fire laddies.” The Free Press’ Editor, William Wallace Beeler Gallaher, attributed Rouss’ affinity for firemen to the possibility that “in his younger days he must have gone out with the boys at the first cry of fire.” In the 1880s and 1890s, both of Charles Town’s local weeklies, the Spirit of Jefferson and the Free Press, faithfully reported Rouss’ generosity.
In August 1885, the Independent Fire Co. took possession of a steam engine manufactured by the Button Steam Fire Engine Co. of New York. Given the name “Idella,” the steam engine, hose and reel, plus shipping charges from New York to Charles Town cost the fire company $2,058. In January 1886 the Spirit of Jefferson printed “an informal report” of the fire company’s activity prepared by Capt. J.C. Holmes. The letter included a treasurer’s report, and Cleon Moore revealed that the “Idella” account still had a balance due of $1,120. Ten years later in 1894, Holmes reported that about $200 was still owed to erase the “heavy debt made by purchasing a steamer.” In his letter to the Spirit of Jefferson’s editor, Holmes noted that “had it not been for the generosity of Charles Broadway Rouss, of New York, who presented the Company from time to time with about five hundred dollars … thanks to his liberality in time of need, it has almost placed us out of debt.”
Rouss also put his money where his mouth was in support of the “fire laddies.” The custom of the day necessitated that the “fire laddies” be outfitted with uniforms. When the Citizens Fire Co. broke out their new uniforms as they paraded through town in early June 1893, Holmes announced that the Independent firemen would follow suit and don new duds, replacing their blue shirts and blue woolen pants made locally by John J. Jobe. His solicitation for public support was answered in the fall by Rouss who sent “a check for one hundred dollars.”
By March 1894 the uniform fund was still short of the mark, and Holmes’ plea for public support was once more answered by Rouss. The Spirit reported that he sent another check for $100 along with a pledge to meet half of the uniforms’ cost and a proposal for the uniforms’ color. Regardless of the financial need, Broadway Rouss always answered the bell when the fire companies called.
Since its founding in July 1884, the Independent Fire Co. No. 1 had occupied the old town council building, a small two-room, two-story brick structure directly behind Charles Washington Hall. By May 1895, “owing to the kindness of the people, and the liberal donations received from … Charles Broadway Rouss” the fire company was debt free.
With their “splendid engine” and new uniforms paid off, it was time to turn their attention to the firehouse, which the firemen judged “is entirely inadequate to meet their necessities, and is really in a perishing condition, the walls being badly cracked and in bad repair generally.” In the May 7th, 1895, edition of the Spirit of Jefferson the company announced its plan to build a “handsome and suitable engine house” and by June the plans were underway.
Well-known local architect and Fire Capt. J.C. Holmes, who was also employed as a building inspector for the U.S. Treasury Department, was called upon to create a sketch of the proposed new fire hall. Charles Town’s photographer, Charles Lee McClung, captured the image and photos of the new building spread around downtown like wildfire. Described as a an “edifice … of no mean proportions,” the building committee assured that the new hall would be “commodious and an ornament to the town.” They also divulged that the building would be named “The Rouss Opera House” in honor of Rouss’ generosity.
The new engine house would be constructed on the lot behind Charles Washington Hall where the old firehouse stood. The town council agreed to provide the lot, which measured 39 feet on North George Street and ran back 65 feet, plus $1,500 toward the building’s construction. The fire company agreed to oversee the building’s construction and raise the funds necessary to complete the project. William G. Earnshaw, George H. Flagg, Charles H. Grim, Julius C. Holmes and Bushrod Corbin Washington were authorized by the fire company to “procure or receive funds” to complete the project estimated to be $10,000.
Based on Holmes’ plan for the new fire hall, “the fire apparatus and implements” would occupy a space “18 x 62 feet” on the right side of the first floor. The first floor would also provide space for the “Mayor’s Office and Council Room,” two “6 x 12” jail cells, and a staircase to the second floor. A “33 x 50” foot fireman’s hall would dominate the second floor, which also included a “13 x 21” foot committee room.
Broadway Rouss’ contributions would be memorialized by a marble slab “with suitable inscriptions to his memory.” It was also announced that the name of the building would be changed to the Charles Broadway Rouss Memorial Hall. A “handsome circular-head door” on the front of the building would provide access to the second and third floors. The new fire hall had two towers, one on either corner. The tower on the southeast corner would include “a circular window frame 5 feet in diameter” at its top, and in late June 1895 the plan was to display “a life-size bust of Charles Broadway Rouss of New York” in the window. Its roof sported a flag staff for “Old Glory.” The middle panel and the northeast tower were topped by a mansard roof and the tower’s flag staff flew the fire company’s flag.
By early November, the Spirit reported that “finishing work upon the Charles Broadway Rouss Memorial Hall of the Independent Fire Company is progressing nicely.” Contractor Charles Grim estimated that the building would “be ready for dedication along about from the 1st to the 10th of December.” The building’s name would be displayed in gold leaf letters attached to the three panels on the front wall between the second and third floors. “C. Broadway Rouss” would adorn the middle panel, “Memorial” would be affixed to the tower panel, and “Hall” would embellish the north panel. “Independent Fire Company” would be placed over the arched doorway on the building’s first floor.
Instead of placing “a life size bust” of Rouss, the “fire laddies” opted for “transparent pictures of Mr Rouss,” which would be affixed to the 5-foot circular windows on the tower’s north, south and east sides. Unfortunately, installation of the transparencies was delayed because they “were missent to Charleston” instead of to Charles Town.
Dec. 10 came and went and although not finished, work on the fire hall was nearing completion. By the week before Christmas, the engine bay doors had been installed, most of the wood trim was in place, and the beaded metal ceiling was in and awaiting installation. Finally, the Rouss transparencies arrived from Charleston undamaged by the diversion. One person reported that the pictures “are not only elegantly executed otherwise, but are perfect likenesses as well.”
With the building very near completion, fire officials announced that the dedication of C. Broadway Rouss Memorial Hall would be held “at 2 p.m., sharp, on Friday, January 10th, 1896.” Excitement for the unveiling was somewhat dampened when Rouss sent a private note advising that he could not attend the dedication revealing that “I can see very little indeed—cannot recognize any one in my ofis [sic].”
Rouss was stricken with blindness in 1895, and at the time of his death in 1902 his offer of a $1 million reward to anyone who could cure his malady was unclaimed.
The dedication went off without a hitch. At 2 p.m. sharp, Capt. George Baylor stepped to the podium and called the proceedings to order. The ceremony opened with music provided by the Charles Town Cornet Band under the direction of Professor Thomas Milton Baker. As the strains of the “Fireman’s Brigade” wafted along George Street, the Rev. Dr. Abner Crump Hopkins offered the invocation.
Addresses were delivered by a number of luminaries. Milton Rouss, Broadway’s brother, spoke for members of Company B, 12th Virginia Cavalry Regiment who were recognized at the dedication. Postmaster General William Lyne Wilson delivered the memorial address telling those assembled that “the building of this memorial hall would mark a point in the history of Charles Town and be an example of the enterprise and industry of the Independent Fire Co.” Concluding remarks were made by Forrest Washington Brown who “read a history of the Independent Fire Co., giving several instances of valuable work the company in saving property from fire.”
The assemblage was treated to both instrumental and vocal music. After its initial offering, the cornet band played the “Rouss Medley Overture,” a memorial piece for Broadway Rouss’ son, Charles Hoke Baltzell Rouss, arranged by Director Baker. The band concluded its presentation with two pieces— “Mountains Echoes” and “Potpourie Bingo.” The Stephenson’s Seminary Choir, under the direction of Madame Bertha Ruhl, sang “God of the Nation, Hear Us.”
At the conclusion of the dedication, guests adjourned to the new town council Room for a reception. At 6 p.m. the celebration continued with a banquet for invited guests held in the new fireman’s hall on the second floor. The evening concluded with “a fine display of fire works at 8:30 p.m.”
In his address, the company’s historian, Forrest W. Brown, acknowledged the significant contribution of C. Broadway Rouss. He also lauded “the energy, public spirit, love of the home of his adoption and skill as an architect and builder” the fire company’s first captain, Julius C. Holmes.
Brown’s concluding remarks succinctly summarized the fire company’s first decade:
“The young Fire Company which 10 years ago was doomed by prophecy and sentenced by public opinion, to great brevity of life and premature dissolution, has conceived, constructed and completed a permanent monument to its thrift and energy, and a fitting memorial to its generous benefactor. This hall that we complete to-day and place upon the scroll of accomplished facts, is the best and latest effort of the subject of this history.”
For the next nine decades, Rouss Memorial Hall was home to the Independent Fire Co. Longtime residents of Charles Town will fondly recall the Teenage Canteen located on the hall’s second floor where they danced the night away every Friday and Saturday. Having outgrown Rouss Hall, in the late 1980s the fire company moved into the former Potomac Edison building on South Fairfax Boulevard. Rouss Hall reverted to the city of Charles Town and today is home to The Firehouse Gallery.
Doug Perks, a retired history teacher and Shepherdstown resident who serves as the historian at the Jefferson County Museum in Charles Town, is a contributor to the Spirit of Jefferson.
