Fire Barn #5
c. 1875 - Leonard Street and Taylor Avenue
Although the exact date of the opening of #5 is unknown, Engine Houses #4 and #6 were both opened in 1875
Although we only know it was located at 5 (post -1912) East
Leonard at Taylor it could be either NE or NW.
Father Morrow, son of a fire captain, chaplain of the GR Fire Dept and Archivist
for the Diocese of Grand Rapids says
it was on the NW corner.
1888 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map
NW NE
Although the numbers are hard to read they look like: 33 and 35 west of Taylor, 454 east of Taylor.
Note the Octagon House - www.octagon.bobanna.com
1880 relocated to Leonard Street and Monroe Avenue
Warranty Deed
Elisha M. Adams & Laura E. Adams, his wife,
To the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan
Date of Instrument - July 26th, 1879
Recorded - July 30th, 1879 at 4:30 P. M. n Liber 120 of Deeds on Page 188.
Consideration - Thirteen Hundred & Twenty Five Dollars
Description
All those certain pieces or parcels of land, known and described as follows: - Lot
1 and
a strip of land 30 feet wide all along and off the north side of lot 2 of block
1, of Long’s Addition to the
City of Grand Rapids, Also described as lot 43, block 6 of Tanner Taylor’s
Addition to said city. CE
Tanner Taylor Addition 1857
Long's Addition n.d.
1181 Monroe Ave NW Built 1880
1888 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map
1941 City Assessor's - Still need to look
Centennial
This station was taken down brick by brick without the City Commission noticing and re-assembled in Allendale and is a museum today (2009) Engine House #5 Museum - Allendale, Michigan
Centennial
Land 55 x 190 $21,000 in 1950
This station was replaced about 1980 by a modern one-story.
http://www.enginehouse5.org/favicon.ico
Restored as a museum in Allendale
Engine House No. 5 originally constructed in the city of Grand Rapids in 1880. Torn down in 1981 and reconstructed as a Fire Museum in 1984 at 6610 Lake Michigan Drive, Allendale, Michigan (just next door to West Shore Fire). Stop by for a visit or call ahead for a tour. (616) 895-4347
Built in 1880 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on the bank of the Grand River, Engine House No. 5 served the community with a horse-drawn steam pumper and a hose cart. At the time of her construction, she gleamed in white brick with red courses, towered and turreted in almost Byzantine splendor. A great deal of small-town pride was taken in her dazzling architecture and in her horse-drawn steamers.
Matched teams of white and Apaloosa horses drew the steamers to hot and smoky work in the Grand Rapids community. At the house, a drop-down harness system was used for a speedy exit. Her apparatus was eventually motorized, as typified by the 1921 La France Engine posing on her ramp, and finally, on her 100th birthday in 1980, she was slated to be torn down. By demolition time, her brick had been painted tuscan red, most of her decoration covered over with plaster, and her usefulness was at an end.
But this once-noble structure wasn't leveled by a wrecking ball; rather, it was taken apart brick by brick and moved. Today, this Grande Dame rests-restored to her Victorian splendor-in the small town of Allendale, Michigan
Except for a somewhat simplified wooden treatment of her 90-foot combination watch and hose tower, she is as she was, supported by brick walls 24 inches thick on the front and 18 inches thick on the sides. The engine room floor is polished wood, and displays of fire equipment and memorabilia are now where the horse stalls once occupied the rear. Above the stalls was a hay loft, and sharing the second floor was the dormitory and meeting room. The chief's office had its own brass fire pole with automatic shutters that opened when the alarm sounded. Beneath the tower is the watch office, equipped with a Gamewell alarm and an alarm repeater used in fire headquarters for distributing an alarm to other companies. Both rooms have been beautifully restored with period furniture and the former chief's office is a working space for the museum.
I have tried to impact every source with corrections or comments so everything on this site is copywrited. The information may be used for your project but the source must be cited.
From Article Fire Department
From Heading Architecture
From web site: MyCityofGrandRapids.info