Valley Stream Fire Department recognizes sister company in Lynbrook

In 1910, the Tally-Ho Inn and Hotel at the corner of Merrick Road, then called Blank Road, and Horton Avenue in Lynbrook, burned to the ground due to the lack of fire protection in the immediate area. 

After the fire, a group of concerned residents in the area formed a fire company and named it Tally-Ho Chemical Engine Company No. 3.  They built a firehouse on Horton Avenue, just down the street from where the inn once stood.  

The new fire company comprised both Lynbrook and Valley Stream residents. It was then an independent fire company and responded to all fire calls in the surrounding villages and towns. 

In 1922, Tally-Ho Engine 3 was forced to join the Lynbrook Fire Department or disband. Only Lynbrook residents could be members of the Lynbrook Fire Department.  Tally-Ho’s Lynbrook residents kept the firehouse on Horton Avenue while the Valley Stream residents who could no longer belong to Tally-Ho were given Tally-Ho’s pumper. Those Valley Stream residents then formed Engine Company 2 of the Valley Stream Fire Department on Brooklyn Avenue in October 1922. They will celebrate their 100th anniversary next year.

Tally-Ho and its sister company, Engine 2, have maintained close ties and friendships for the past 119 years.

On April 23, 2021,Tally-Ho Engine Company 3 dedicated and christened their new 2021 Spartan fire engine at ceremonies outside the Horton Avenue firehouse.  And Engine 2 was part of the dedication and wet down ceremony. One of the presentations made that day was from Engine 2 Captain Brian Grogan, a former member of Tally-Ho, who presented a plaque with photos of all eight of Tally-Ho’s apparatus since the company was formed in 1912.