Davenport Hose Station No. 3 is located in a commercial area on the east side of

Davenport, Iowa Davenport is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Iowa, United States. Located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state, it is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and a ...

, United States. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1984. The building is one of two historic former fire stations on the east side that are still in existence. The other one is

Hose Station No. 4 Hose Station No. 4 is located in the Village of East Davenport in Davenport, Iowa, United States. It is a contributing property of the Davenport Village Historic District that has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 19 ...

in the Village of East Davenport.

History

The first group of volunteer firefighters in Davenport were organized in 1856 and called the Independent Fire Engine and Hose Company. The city's first firehouse,

Hose Station No. 1 The Hose Station No. 1 is a historic building located in downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and on the Davenport Register of Historic Properties in 1999. (Click on "Historic Pr ...

, was built on Perry Street in 1877 for the Fire King Engine 2nd Hose Company. After the turn of the 20th-century, the city built other small hose stations as the city grew. Hose Station No. 3 is one of those stations. It was built in 1921 on property that had previously held a

livery A livery is an identifying design, such as a uniform, ornament, symbol or insignia that designates ownership or affiliation, often found on an individual or vehicle. Livery will often have elements of the heraldry relating to the individual or ...

and boarding stable. with The firehouse was discontinued in 1966 when larger and more modern stations were built by the city.

Architecture

Like other Davenport firehouses of this era, Hose Station No. 3 was designed using Mediterranean themed architecture ( Italianate, Renaissance Revival). While smaller than Davenport's main Central Fire Station, it is larger than the single-stall hose stations that were located throughout the city's residential neighborhoods. The two-story structure follows a rectangular plan with a hipped roof and modified

Gibbs surround A Gibbs surround or Gibbs Surround is a type of architectural frame surrounding a door, window or niche in the tradition of classical architecture otherwise known as a rusticated doorway or window. The formula is not fixed, but several of the ...

s on the second-floor windows of the main facade. These were common elements that are found on the smaller stations as well. The extremely wide

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural styl ...

and shallow roof pitch reflects the

American Foursquare The American Foursquare or American Four Square is an American house style popular from the mid-1890s to the late 1930s. A reaction to the ornate and mass-produced elements of the Victorian architecture, Victorian and other Revival styles popul ...

house architecture that was popular in Davenport during the first two decades of the 20th century.

References

{{Historic Davenport structures Fire stations completed in 1921 Government buildings completed in 1921 Buildings and structures in Davenport, Iowa Fire stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Defunct fire stations in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Davenport, Iowa