Bollée to the fire? (UPDATE VI: It's in Chicago after all!)

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Another picture from the Halbauer-Miller Photo Collection sent to us by Mike Leahy. A man and his automobile in front of a Chicago Fire Department station. From the looks of the surrounding area with fields or farmland, things must have changed a lot in Chicago since this picture was taken. Written on the front of the photo is "Leon Ballee - Norris Mason - Oct". Obviously what we are looking at here, is not a Leon Ballee, but a Léon Bollée designed for the American market and made after 1903. What we don’t know is the model. Can you help us? (RB)

UPDATE VI again by Dick Trenk, who managed to track down a photo of the actual Firehouse (click!): “…which still stands and is protected as an historical building (but no longer used for its original purpose) It stands against a huge modern building in a fully built up area....quite different from the gutted open area seen in the original photo. The semi-Gothic or Olde English lettering led us astray on the spelling due to the unusual shape of some letters.”
UPDATE V: Dick Trenk -who has been a long time member of the Chicago Historical Society- doubts whether this picture was taken in Chicago. “I never saw a photo of a Chicago firehouse built in the manner seen in your photo. The great Chicago fire of 1871 burned the city 100%. The only thing left standing was the now famous "Water Tower" which is now an icon. Post fire rebuilding was done only with stonework and brick for city buildings. The Chicago firehouses have to my knowledge never used the word Chicago on the front of the firehouse.” We made a better scan scan (click!) of the wording and now we are also in doubt. Any Idea’s?
UPDATE IV: Evan Ide found an original photo taken by Healey and Co. coachbuilders. They built the magnificent bodywork for this Leon Bollee. All details seem to match and it is unlikely Healey built two identical bodies on Bollee chassis. Healey produced some of the wildest bodies for very high quality cars. This particular body has what appears to be a set of bucket seats were the jump seats would usually be, a very unusual feature.
UPDATE III from editor JB: “In the Standard Catalogue of American Cars one can read that Mr. Worthington planned ‘to erect and maintain an ABSOLUTELY FIREPROOF GARAGE for the storage of automobiles’ in 1904... Coincidence or had Mr. Worthington a past connected with fire brigades?”
UPDATE II comes from Mark Dawber who suggests 'Worthington-Bollee'. Worthington acquired the exclusive rights to build the Leon Bollee in America, but most likely all Worthington-Bollee’s were imported.
UPDATE I by Andy Watt: “Looking at the size of the bonnet, the size of the wheels and the general proportions I think this is the 50 HP 8 litre model. I know that at least one restored example exists which I believe was found in America but now lives in the UK.”

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