It was 156 years ago when the city bought the steam fire engine "Kearsarge," a coal-fired, horse-drawn engine, that could force a stream of water from the Court Street fire house to the North Church spire, said Fire Chief Steve Achilles.
On Friday, the Kearsarge was brought back to Portsmouth in fully-restored condition.
Achilles said the antique fire truck — freshly painted and polished by Firefly Restoration of Hope, Maine — is now everyone's to admire as its history is preserved. While the steam fire engine served the city for 50 years, Achilles said, it helped extinguish "almost all of the big fires."
It was also loaded onto a train and traveled to Boston where it was used to fight the Great Boston Fire of 1872 and is credited with saving the South Meeting House, Achilles said.
Photos in the downtown fire station, taken the day the Kearsarge arrived in Market Square, show city firefighters lined up in front of it, depicted in sepia tones that fail to capture the Kearsarge's brass, copper and three shades of red paint. It originally had a companion carriage for hauling hoses but that was lost to time.