Elm Street Fire Station

The Elm Street Fire Station is a historic fire station at 58 Elm Street in Gardner, Massachusetts. Built in 1897, it is a little-altered example of a Late Victorian fire station, with a number of distinctive period features. The station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, at which time it was still in active service.[1] It was included in the Gardner Uptown Historic District in 1999.[2] The building is presently vacant.

Elm Street Fire Station
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district Contributing property
Elm Street Fire Station
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Location	58 Elm St., Gardner, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°34′40″N 71°59′8″W
Area	less than one acre
Built	1897 (1897)
Architect	Unknown
Architectural style	Late Victorian
Part of	Gardner Uptown Historic District (ID99000660)
NRHP reference No.	80001677[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	April 2, 1980
Designated CP	June 3, 1999

Description and history

The Elm Street Fire Station stands in a residential area east of downtown Gardner, at the northeast corner of Elm and Cherry Streets. It is a 2-1/2 story brick building, with hip roof. At its left front corner, a square tower rises four stories, with an open belfry at the top and a pyramidal roof with flared eaves. The front facade houses three equipment bays on the ground floor, each with original double-leaf glazed wooden doors set in segmented-arch openings. The second floor has bands of three windows set above each bay, with stone sills and segmented-arch headers. The main roof eave is lined with modillion blocks.[3]

When it was built in 1897, the building had a number of innovative features. It used a distinctive suspension system to support the building's second story without the need for columns, using steel rods attached to the load bearing outside walls. Other interior facilities include systems for automatically dropping harnesses onto waiting horses, which were at the time the means by which fire equipment was moved.[2]

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Worcester County, Massachusetts

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
2. "MACRIS inventory record for Elm Street Fire Station". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2014-03-18.
3. "NRHP nomination for Elm Street Fire Station". National Archive. Retrieved 2018-07-12.