The Lake Street Fire Station is an historic fire station in Gardner, Massachusetts. Built in 1884 to house a school and a fire company, it served as a school for just a few years, and as a fire station until the 1980s. It is architecturally distinguished as a good local example of late Victorian architecture. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980,[1] and included in the West Gardner Square Historic District in 1985.[2]
Lake Street Fire Station | |
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| Location | 2 Lake Street, Gardner, Massachusetts |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 42°34′37″N 71°59′42″W / 42.57694°N 71.99500°W |
| Built | 1884 |
| Architectural style | Italianate |
| Part of | West Gardner Square Historic District (ID85003185) |
| NRHP reference No. | 80001676[1] |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | March 25, 1980 |
| Designated CP | December 30, 1985 |
Description and history
editThe former Lake Street Fire Station is located in downtown Gardner, occupying a parcel of land between Richmond and Central Streets, facing east toward a plaza that was once part of Lake Street, and the former Heywood-Wakefield Company Complex. It is a 2-1/2 story masonry structure, built out of red brick and covered by a gabled roof. Its ground floor main facade has four former equipment bays, now filled with large multipane windows and the building's current main entrance, and a former pedestrian entrance at the left. Each of these openings has a segmented-arch top, formed out of soldier bricks. The center bay has a projecting wood-frame oriel window, with a gable in the roof line above. The flanking windows are narrower, with segmented-arch openings that have shoulders and lintels of stone, and arches of soldier bricks.[3]
The fire station was built in 1884, and originally housed a school on the second floor, which moved out in 1890. It also had a small lockup in the basement, which was later converted to a boiler room. The station originally had four bays for firetrucks, and a tower for drying hoses.[3] The tower has been removed, and a modern addition added three truck bays to its left side (now housing the local visitors center).[2]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
- ^ a b "MACRIS inventory record for Lake Street Fire Station". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved March 19, 2014.
- ^ a b "NRHP nomination for Lake Street Fire Station". National Archive. Retrieved July 22, 2018.