Fire Station No. 19, now the site of a

Buffalo Wild Wings Buffalo Wild Wings (originally Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck, hence the nickname BDubs, or BW3) is an American casual dining restaurant and sports bar franchise in the United States, Canada, India, Mexico, Panama, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, a ...

, and the architectural firm Station 19 Architects in Minneapolis, Minnesota,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

is centered in the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

, Minneapolis campus. The former Fire Station is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. It was built in 1893 in an era when Minneapolis was growing rapidly. Rapid development was bringing prosperity to Minneapolis, but it was also starting to tax the city's infrastructure. Residents and businesses on the east bank of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

were demanding better fire protection, especially after the fire that consumed the University of Minnesota Old Main building in 1892 along with some grain elevators nearby. Fire Station No. 19 was built in a simple utilitarian style (unique to Minneapolis), yet it contained some touches of ornamentation. It was built with a bell tower that was later removed. The fire station was one of the last to house horse-drawn equipment, as late as 1922, it also had a hardwood floor apparatus bay. A newer Fire Station 19 was occupied in 1976 one block to the south. Besides its role as a firehouse, Historic Fire Station No. 19 was also the birthplace of kittenball, a variant of

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

. Louis Rober, a lieutenant at the fire station between 1896 and 1906, adapted the rules of baseball to create a game that would use less space, time, and equipment than a regular baseball game. He created the game so firefighters could get exercise while waiting for a fire alarm. Early teams included the "Kittens" of Engine Company 19, "Rats" of Engine Company 9, "Whales" of Engine Company 4, "Salisburys" from a mattress factory, "Pillsburys" from nearby flour mills, and the "Central Avenues". By 1906, more than 20 teams were playing in summer leagues. The building was acquired in 1977 by local architects who turned the building into offices under the name Station 19 Architects. The firm primarily creates designs for churches in Minnesota. There was some concern in the mid-2000s decade that the University of Minnesota would have the structure demolished to make way for rearranged roads leading to and from the then-unbuilt

TCF Bank Stadium Huntington Bank Stadium (formerly known as TCF Bank Stadium) is an outdoor stadium located on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The stadium opened in 2009, after three years of construction. It i ...

. The university made offers to purchase the property into early 2006, and the building owners worried that the property would be seized through

eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

. However, the roads were eventually routed around the building, making it the only structure on a small island across from the stadium.

References

External links

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Station 19 Architects
{{National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota 1893 establishments in Minnesota Defunct fire stations in Minnesota Fire stations completed in 1893 Fire stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota National Register of Historic Places in Minneapolis