Telling Stories

Fire Station #3

Many buildings tell stories.  Think about your own house. What comes to mind?   You probably think about something you do in the house or something important that happened to you in the house?  You may remember the first day you moved into the house, or you may think of the time you broke your leg in the yard, or you may think of the other people who share the house with you.  Your house is more than just a building; it is part of your life story. Thinking of your house also means thinking of all the things that go on around or inside the house.  

For many people, fire stations tell stories.  Fire stations are located in neighborhoods where people live, work, and go to school.  They become part of the community and over time the stories of the community and the stories of the fire station become intertwined, and eventually the building itself can represent the story of that particular community.

          Photo Credit: Denver Firefighter's Museum

A perfect example of a fire station that tells an important story about a community is Station #3 at 2500 Washington Street .  The first Station #3 was built just across the street from the current station in 1893.  The current station was built in 1938.   From 1893 until 1958, Station #3 was segregated from the rest of the Fire Department. All the firefighters stationed at Station #3 were African-American, while the firefighters stationed in other communities were all white. Throughout Denver ’s early years, much of the city was segregated this way.  People of different races lived in different neighborhoods, went to different churches, shopped at different stores, and attended different schools.   In the 1950s, things began to change in Denver and in the rest of the United States .  The Civil Rights Movement was the reason for many of these changes as African Americans fought for equal treatment and equal opportunity in all aspects of American life.  

As a result of the Civil Rights Movement, many community institutions, including fire stations, were integrated.  Since 1958 the entire Denver Fire Department has been integrated, so that firefighters of all races work together at all the city’s stations.   Station #3 was the only segregated station the city ever had, and so it tells the story of Denver ’s segregated years and the later integration of the city.  The station is therefore not only valuable because of the way it looks, but also because its story reflects the important changes that were taking place not only in Denver but also around the country in the middle of the 20th century.  

The Firefighters Museum

               Photo Credit: Denver Firefighter's Museum

Another station that tells a story that is important to the city is Old Station #1 at 1326 Tremont in downtown Denver.  This station was built in 1909 to serve the neighborhoods surrounding downtown Denver.  From its first years through the 1920s, the fire station housed not only men but also horse-drawn fire engines and the horses that pulled them.  When the firefighters were on duty, the men slept on the second floor of the building.  The horses were stabled below, at the rear of the first floor.  

In the 1920s, motorized fire engines became common and the horses were moved out of the fire station.   Fire Station #1 continued to operate until 1975, when the Fire Department decided that a new Station #1 that would be big enough for more offices, was needed.   The department therefore moved out of the old station and into a new station, which still operates at Speer Boulevard and Colfax, just a few blocks away.  

When the department decided to move, many firefighters and community members were concerned about what would happen to the old station, which had served the area for almost seventy years and which had become important to many people.   These people felt that this particular fire station, one of the oldest in the city, was important to the story of fire fighting in Denver because it was one of the few stations remaining that still exemplified what fire stations were like before fire engines became motorized.  

The group therefore applied to the National Register of Historic Places and had the building designated as a National Landmark.   In 1978, the old fire station opened its doors as the Denver Firefighters Museum.   Today, the building tells a story about life in early Denver and about the history of urban firefighting by allowing visitors to explore an authentic historic fire station and by preserving many artifacts from the earliest days of firefighting in Denver .  

Fortunately, neither the 1326 Tremont Station, nor the artifacts it houses were lost.   When a building is lost, its contributions to the community are often forgotten, and the details of the past that the building was associated with become obscure.   For example, you would never know that before Fire Station # 1 at 1326 Tremont was built in 1909, an even earlier fire station #1 stood at the corner of Colfax and Broadway.   Look at these photographs of those same streets taken today , can you tell where the fire station was?

                          Colfax & Broadway

Probably not.   Early in the 20 th century the original Fire Station #1 was demolished and the Pioneer Monument erected in its place.  With the loss of this early Denver Queen Anne structure, the awareness that the area now known as Civic Center Park was once a neighborhood with hundreds of houses is also lost.  

                           Original Fire Station #1.  Photo Credit: Denver Firefighter's Museum.

The building which housed the first fire station #1 was dedicated as Broadway Hose Company No. 6 on January 4, 1882.  The hose company itself was a volunteer organization which was founded on February 27, 1881 . The company worked out of a temporary shanty adjoining the location of the new fire house until the building was completed.  The building faced three streets, 15th, Broadway, and Cheyenne.  The structure had two stories and was topped with a belfry which housed a 1,600 pound bell.   Two large double doors, one facing 15th street and one facing Broadway, were built “for the purpose of facilitating the more-speedy exit of the men from the engine room, saving them the time and trouble of running around the building.”  The building was of the Queen Anne style of architecture, and was decorated with Brussels carpet, handsome curtains, marble top dressers, chairs, pictures and beds.

The Queen Anne style of architecture was popular between 1874 and 1893.  The term "Queen Anne" was first used in England to describe medieval structures with classical ornamentation.  Classical refers to details that come from the Greek and Roman era, more than two thousand years ago.  Most Queen Anne Style buildings have a simple wood construction, textured surfaces, towers and/or turrets, wrap-around porches, balconies, art glass and high, brick chimneys.  Many Denver houses built during the 1880s and early 1890s are Queen Anne.  After the silver crash of 1893, however, it was considered too luxurious. 

In the spring of 1884, when firefighters began to receive a salary, the first Fire Station #1 became the home of Engine Company One. In later years the building was torn down to make way for new traffic patterns, a new neighborhood and a now famous Civic Center Monument, the Pioneer Monument .

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FIRE! Table of Contents

Introduction

FIRE! Passport:
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(669 Kb)
MS Word Document
(4 MB)

Fires in the West

Stopping the Flames

The Denver Fire

Department

A Permanent City

Stylish Stations

Retired & Reused

Old vs. New

Telling Stories

Conclusion

Fire Glossary

More Resources