The Historic Firehouses of Louisville is a Thematic Resource (TR)

Multiple Property Submission The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of Historic districts in the United States, districts, sites, buildings, struc ...

(MPS) 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 ...

. The submission represents 18 historic

fire station __NOTOC__ A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall, firemen's hall, or engine house) is a structure or other area for storing firefighting apparatuses such as fire engines and related vehicles, personal protective equipment, fire h ...

s, located in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

, which were added to the National Register in 1980–81 due to their historical and architectural merits.Hedgepeth, Marty. , accessed December 10, 2011

History of firefighting in Louisville

Louisville's first fire brigades were established in 1780, two years after the city's creation. The first firehouses were

volunteer fire department A volunteer fire department (VFD) is a fire department of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction. Volunteer and retained (on-call) firefighters are expected to be on call to respond ...

s scattered throughout the city, but on June 1, 1858 the city of Louisville took control, and replaced the hand engines with five steam engines and volunteers with paid staff. There were initially three fire stations, 65 professional firefighters, and 23 horses. Many of the early firehouses were demolished due to

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

; the oldest firehouse still standing was originally built as St. John's Church in 1848, but the city turned the two-story edifice of brick and

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

located in

Phoenix Hill Phoenix Hill is a neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky just east of Downtown. Its boundaries are Market Street to the North, Preston Street to the West, Broadway to the South, and Baxter Avenue to the East. The Phoenix Hill neighborhood, settled ...

into a firehouse in 1869. Three additional remaining firehouses were built in the 1870s and 1880s (Steam Engine Co. #7 in

Limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...

(1871), Steam Engine Co. #10 in Butchertown (1873), and the Rogers Street Firehouse in Irish Hill (1883)). Formed on October 7, 1871, as the Louisville Steam Engine Co. 7, Engine Company 7, at 6th & York Streets, is the oldest continuously operated firehouse in the United States. Due to budget concerns, it is scheduled to close in January 2009, in hopes to save $543,000 from the city's budget.Halladay, Jessie
Historic Louisville firehouse faces final call
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The Courier-Journal ''The Courier-Journal'', also known as the ''Louisville Courier Journal'' (and informally ''The C-J'' or ''The Courier''), is the highest circulation newspaper in Kentucky. It is owned by Gannett and billed as "Part of the ''USA Today'' Ne ...

'' January 7, 2009, accessed December 10, 2011 The most prominent of the firehouses built in the 1890s was the Fire Department Headquarters built in

Downtown Louisville Downtown Louisville is the largest central business district in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the urban hub of the Louisville, Kentucky Metropolitan Area. Its boundaries are the Ohio River to the north, Hancock Street to the east, York and Jaco ...

at 617 W. Jefferson Street in 1891. It is

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanesque ...

in style, as it was designed by the McDonald Brothers, who also designed the

Kentucky National Bank Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

and Norton's Warehouse buildings in downtown Louisville. The current fire department headquarters, at 1135 W. Jefferson Street (just outside downtown Louisville), was built in 1936 by the

WPA WPA may refer to: Computing *Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard *Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing * Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada * Windows Performance An ...

. This

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

edifice is one of the few buildings in Louisville built in the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style. When the fire department moved out, the former headquarters became home to the police traffic bureau and eventually became the Louisville Sinking Fund Building.

Firehouses

References

External links

Steam Engine Co. #7's MySpace page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Historic Firehouses Of Louisville National Register of Historic Places in Louisville, Kentucky Defunct fire stations in Kentucky Fire stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky Lists of buildings and structures in Kentucky Firefighting-related lists Lists of government buildings in the United States Government of Louisville, Kentucky

History of firefighting in Louisville

Firehouses

See also

References

External links