Here’s a middle school system. I’m too lazy to come up with a name for it.
The school was built in 1926, obviously with no real fire alarm system, just a few hand-operated bells to alert in the event of emergency.
At some point in the 1940s, an Autocall “pull rod” fire alarm system was added throughout the main level of the school (there were three floors in all, with no elevator… more on that later). 10" Autocall single-stroke bells were added, three in each of the three hallways, plus one in what was at the time a general cafeteria/multipurpose room/gymnasium, for a total of ten bells.
Fast forward to the late 1960s, amazingly the Autocall system has done it’s job incredibly well, but in 1968, the school realized there were issues with students on the second and third floors being unable to hear the bells. Because of this, along with an upcoming addition of a new cafeteria and gymnasium, plus the renovation of most classrooms, the entire Autocall system was replaced with a Simplex system, with new Simplex 4037 horns being installed in each hallway, plus two in the new gymnasium, one in the new cafeteria, and one in the renovated multipurpose room. In addition, Simplex 4263-1 pull stations were installed (two in each hallway, two in the gymnasium, one in the cafeteria).
Throughout the 1970s, little changed with the fire alarm system. In 1979, a 4263-1 in a hallway was found to be defective. It was replaced with a Simplex 4251-30 pull station.
Similarly, in 1981, a second pull station broke, also to be replaced by a Simplex 4251-30. Three years later, a Simplex 4037 in the gymnasium broke, and was replaced by a Simplex 2901-9806 horn. In 1989, a new special education wing was added, with Simplex 2901-9838 horns on 2903-9101 strobe plates. The classrooms in this wing all received Simplex 2904 strobes as well. In addition, a Single 4037 installed in the ground-floor hallway next to the special education wing had to be removed during construction, and was replaced with another 9838/9101 combo about 10 feet further down the hall. A Simplex 4004 replaced the older Simplex panel to handle the larger system.
Following an exciting 1980s fire alarm-wise, not much with the system changed into the 1990s. The 1960s Simplex system was still largely intact in the main building. In 1995, both of the band/orchestra rooms recieved Simplex 4903-9219 horn/strobes. Another -9219 was also installed in the gym, ironically not replacing the remaining Simplex 4037, but instead the -9806 that was barely ten years old. In 1998, the district ended its longtime partnership with Simplex, and instead began utilizing a Gamewell distributer.
In 1999, it was found that the school, largely unchanged since the 1968 renovation, was in despite need of repair. There were nowhere near enough classrooms, no elevator, out-of-date science labs, no true computer labs, and a kitchen that was full of code violations. Obviously, this meant it was time for a renovation, planned to take place in stages from 2000-2002. In addition, the district managed to secure additional funds to build an auxiliary building, which would include a gym, a pool, a media center, two gymnasiums, a gymnastics room, a new front office, a new cafeteria, and a student center. This building would connect to the existing one via two elevated skyways (sort of going off of a real school in my area for this one). It was decided that the existing gymnasium and cafeteria would be converted into additional classrooms, as opposed to adding a new wing with classrooms onto the back of the school. In other news, despite the fact that everything would be ripped out the following year, a broken Simplex 4037 was replaced with a Gamewell/Wheelock AS.
In June, 2000, work began on the $53 million project that would add twelve new classrooms, an entire new 58,000 square-foor building, and remodel the entire school from top to bottom began. Midway through the planning process the district decided to move all students to another closed school nearby for one year due to safety reasons. However, this meant that the project would largely be complete by fall 2001, as opposed to fall 2002, and would also save the district a bit of money. Back to the fire alarms…
The system chosen for this project was a massive Gamewell addressable system. Throughout the entire school, Gamewell Century dual-action pull stations would be installed. In the main building, the notification appliance of choice happened to be Wheelock NS horn/strobes, with Wheelock RSS strobes in most classrooms. For some bizarre reason, likely due to an ordering mix-up, a Single Wheelock ASWP was installed in one of the hallways. In the auxiliary building, Wheelock E-70 and E-90 speaker/strobes were chosen. This building also has Gamewell Century pull stations.
Since then, the only changes have been a few pull station spot replacements (all with Gamewell-branded BG-12s), a few notification appliance spot replacements in the main building (depending on when, either NS’s, ZNS’s, or Exceder-series devices). In 2017, the student center was renovated and expanded, and Wheelock LED Exceder ceiling-mount speaker/strobes were installed. This is how the system remains as of January 2018.