Most were either destroyed or simply given away. In an interview last year on KYW Newsradio, Lucy Strackhouse, executive director of the Fairmount Park Historic Preservation Trust, recounted that the Fairmount Park Commission decided in the 1950s to get rid of the remaining shacks, many of which were approaching a hundred years old. The restored Washington Square guard house. Each one had a telephone and wood or coal stove. Besides those built in the 19th century, additional shelters were constructed by the Works Projects Administration from 1935 until 1943. The small structures were generally built in one of two architectural styles-Gothic Revival (or Victorian) or Craftsman. The Fairmount Park Commission had installed over a hundred guard boxes throughout the park for the officers. When not making their rounds, guards were often found resting or doing paperwork in wooden shelters known as guard boxes (or houses, shacks, or shelters). Furthermore, the guards patrolled the Schuylkill River to prevent accidental drownings and to provide assistance whenever someone fell through the ice when the river froze. They also kept watch over the park’s greenery and its collection of mansions, statues and fountains, all while routinely returning lost children to parents. The Fairmount Park Guards patrolled the park by foot, horseback and even bicycle to provide information and security to Fairmount Park visitors. A century later, in 1972, the two police forces finally merged. Formed in 1868, the Park Guards was at one point the third largest police force in Pennsylvania-behind only the police forces of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Philadelphia once had two independent police forces: the regular men in blue and another force called the Fairmount Park Guards. A Fairmount Park guard stands dutifully in front of the Saylor Grove Guard Box circa 1807-71.
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