The two-story fire
station was built in 1898 at 2403 Milam and
McIlhenny and was of Romanesque style. It was opened in 18999 as the first paid fire station for the City of Houston. The
two bays housed Steamer No. 7 and
Hose Wagon No. 7, each of which was
pulled by two horses. Stalls of the
horses were against the outside
walls beside the apparatus.
 Between
the two bays was the watch office
behind an area where the men spent
their time when not at work.
Upstairs was the
dormitory, locker room and showers. Quarters
for the officers were between the locker
room and dormitory. Access to upstairs was
by a stairway behind the watch office. Three
galvanized fire poles provided a quick way
to the apparatus downstairs.
After a fire, the
apparatus were driven into the fire station
through two doors at the rear that lined up
with the front doors. Fire hose was dried on
a hose rack in the back yard.
In 1926, the area
for the men was made into a center stall for
a chemical engine, and a door cut into the
front wall for the new apparatus. Two
battalion chiefs (a newly-made rank) were
assigned to ride the chemical engine. The
station remained active until a new Fire
Station No. 7 was built in 1969.
Preservation of old
Fire Station No. 7 as a fire museum began in
1980. The station had been proclaimed a fire
museum by city council in 1977, but little
was done to preserve the building. Fire
Chief V. E. Rogers pushed the project off
center and assigned Captain Calvin Mendel to
oversee the renovation project. Today, the
Houston Fire Museum has been completely
renovated and is listed on the National
Register of Historic Places.
As activities at the
Fire Museum outgrew the old fire station at
the turn of the century, and the Board of
Trustees decided to build a new Fire Museum
a block away on Main Street and Hadley. The
old museum will still remain as part of the
Fire Museum, and the old museum be renovated
to look as it did in 1899 when it was built,
together with an old steamer and hose wagon. |
