Stephen G. Heaver, a builder and developer whose fascination with fire trucks and apparatus led him to create the Fire Museum of Maryland, died Monday of lung failure at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The Lutherville resident was 80.
Mr. Heaver loved fire trucks all his life. As a boy, he would sit on the curb near his Roland Park home -- around the corner from a fire station -- to watch them rumble past.
He bought his first piece of fire equipment in 1962 and founded the Lutherville museum in 1971. Today, it is one of the country's largest and most complete collections of firefighting history, and receives about 12,000 visitors annually.
"It was a hobby that went wild," said his son, Allan B. Heaver of Butler. "That's how he described it."
A successful builder and developer, Mr. Heaver opened the museum in an 18,000-square-foot building behind Heaver Plaza, which he built on York Road.
The nonprofit museum has about 40 fire engines on display that Mr. Heaver and another son, Stephen G. Heaver Jr. of Baltimore, collected over the years. Every era of firefighting apparatus is correctly represented -- including 1800s-era hand-drawn and horse-drawn gear.
"This whole thing started out very innocently," the elder Heaver said in a 1978 interview with The Sun. "Now I am fully carried away and out of control."
Mahlon Hessey, a member of the museum's board, said Mr. Heaver received satisfaction in helping to educate young visitors.
"He was a blue-chip gentleman," Mr. Hessey said. "He did it out of his own interest. He was very generous with the fire museum."
Mr. Heaver said he was always interested in trucks and engines, and bought his first engine -- a 1928 American LaFrance pumper -- from the Hereford Volunteer Fire Department for less than $500.
Next was a 1922 Ahrens-Fox pumper -- which he called the "Rolls Royce of fire engines" -- that for years was assigned to the old North Eutaw Street station. He bought it from the city Fire Department for $250 and restored it in six years. It was the first Ahrens-Fox to be accurately restored in the United States.
By 1969, he had 13 classic motorized fire vehicles. At the time, he lived on Lakehurst Drive near the city-Baltimore County line and routinely parked several fire vehicles on the side of his home.
"The neighbors didn't care for that too much," his son said. "I'm sure of that."
