The Houghton Fire Hall, officially called the Continental Fire Company Building, is a former fire station at the corner of Huron St. and Montezuma Ave. in

Houghton, Michigan Houghton (; ) is the largest city and seat of government of Houghton County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Located on the Keweenaw Peninsula, Houghton is the largest city in the Copper Country region. It is the fifth-largest city in the Uppe ...

. Built in 1883, it was the original home of the

Michigan Mining School Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech, MTU, or simply Tech) is a public university, public research university in Houghton, Michigan, founded in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, the first post-secondary institution in the Upper Pen ...

. The building is listed as a Michigan State Historic Site and is a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...

of the Shelden Avenue Historic District.

History

The Continental Fire Company organized in 1860 in Houghton. The department's first fire hall was built in 1861 along the waterfront near the site of the modern-day

Portage Lake Lift Bridge The Portage Lake Lift Bridge (officially the Houghton–Hancock Bridge) connects the cities of Hancock and Houghton, in the US state of Michigan. It crosses Portage Lake, a portion of the waterway which cuts across the Keweenaw Peninsula with a c ...

The new fire hall was built in 1883 and its bell was cast in 1884 by Centennial Bell Foundry, G. Campbell & Sons, Milwaukee Wis. The Continental Fire Company occupied the basement, which housed horses, and the main floor, which stored fire engines. Village offices were on the second floor. The

, now Michigan Technological University, held its first classes on the second floor and in the basement from 1886 through May 1889. In the early 1900s, the building was extended to the north to store more oats and hay for the horses. In 1916, an addition was built on the western side to store two more fire engines. The city moved its offices out of the fire hall in the 1930s. On August 5, 1966, a bronze plaque was unveiled commemorating the building as the original home of the

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

. In 1974, the fire department moved to a new, more centrally located fire hall along Sharon Avenue in order to accommodate larger modern equipment. The fire bell was removed in October 1975 and transferred to the new location. The western addition was sold and became an auto supply store. The fire hall was listed as a Michigan State Historic Site on August 6, 1976. In 1978, the university purchased the building from the city to use as storage. On December 30, 1987, the Shelden Avenue Historic District was 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 v ...

, with the fire hall as a contributing property. It was sold in 2010 to a private group who renovated it into an entertainment venue, called the Continental Fire Co., which opened in February 2012. The western addition became vacant in October 2011 when the auto supply store moved to a new location.

Architecture

The fire hall is a flat-roofed, three-storyTwo stories plus the basement level brick structure designed in the Italianate style. The foundation is built of rubble and painted white. A small, four-faced clock tower was originally situated on the

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

at the front of the building. The vertical space provided room for fire hoses to hang and dry.

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