Legeros photo, 2006
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These are research notes on historic and former firehouses in Asheville. This page was created in 2006. It was updated with new information and photos, and also reformatted and re-organized, in August 2024.
The Asheville Fire Department was formally organized in 1882. After a fatal fire on Vance Street, a group of citizens demanded action from town officials. A hand truck and equipment were purchased and the volunteer Hook and Ladder Company #1 was born. Two years later, Hose Company #1 was formed, also hand-drawn.
The first horse-drawn hose carriage was introduced in 1887. The first horse-drawn ladder truck was added by 1891. Motor apparatus arrived in 1912. The first fire engines included a pair of Seagrave combination chemical and hose trucks, and a Seagrave combination chemical and service ladder truck. The department was fully motorized by 1917.
The volunteers were partly paid in the 1900s, with four fully paid personnel on the roster by 1913. The entire department became fully paid in April 1924, with six companies operating at three stations. This was a prosperous decade in Asheville and the last decade of growth before the Great Depression. Six new stations were opened between 1919 and 1929, five of which are still standing.
Historian Mike Legeros explores these and other old stations, along with the history of the Asheville, Biltmore Village, and Biltmore Forest fire departments.
10 Court Plaza
Opened 1926
The Municipal Building at 10 Court Plaza officially opened on March 8, 1926. Over 15,000 people attended the ceremonies at the $100,000 structure. The four-story building housed the fire and police departments, a police court, a city jail, and the City Market in the rear. The fire station first housed four fire companies, two engines, an aerial ladder, and a service ladder. The living areas included dormitories (with 28 beds), reading rooms, a club room, and a kitchen.
In the late 1930s, the City Market relocated to North Lexington Avenue. In 1941, the fire department expanded into part of the old market. Personnel built a maintenance garage with a vehicle entrance on the Market Street side of the structure. By 1956, the remaining old market area was used by the county welfare department.
The interior of the Municipal Building was extensively remodeled beginning in 1998. The $11 million project expanded and improved facilities for both the fire and police departments. The emergency communications center was also moved from its basement location to the third floor.
Station 1 presently houses Engine 1, Ladder 1, Rescue 1, Tac 1 (CAFS unit), and old Engine 5, a 1927 American LaFrance pumper, exiting Court Plaza; Chief 4 (Division Chief) exiting Market Street, and Tanker 1 exiting the rear. The building also houses the offices of Fire Administration, Fire Prevention, Safety, and Training.
Legeros photo, 2006
87 Haywood Street
Opened 1998 /
Closed 1999
Asheville Civic Center
In 1998, an extensive renovation of Asheville's municipal building on Court Plaza was started. During the construction work, portions of the building were vacated. The police detective's division leased space on the third floor of the county sheriff's building. Other planned relocations included a temporary trailer to house the police reports department.
The fire department's training, special operations, and maintenance divisions moved to Old Station 4 on Merrimon Avenue in February 1998, which was already housing the Arson Task Force. Planned for March 1998 was relocation of the fire department's administrative, life safety, and operations divisions, as well as apparatus from Station 1, to the Asheville Civic Center, built in 1975.
Living space was subsequently constructed in the old offices of a minor league hockey team. Apparatus was housed in the parking and loading area, which exited Hiawassee Street using a single door.
During Civic Center events that required use of the parking and loading areas, fire apparatus was moved outside or relocated surrounding fire stations.
Though initially planned for a six-month relocation, the Civic Center housed the fire department for some 18 months. Fhe fire department returned to the Municipal Building in November 1999.
Legeros photo, 2006
417 Haywood Road
Opened 1919 / Closed 1922
Commercial occupancy
In December 1914, two hand hose companies organized in the town of West Asheville. After the town merged with the city in 1917, fire protection was assumed by Asheville Fire Department. Due to manpower shortages during World War I, the volunteer fire company was disbanded in 1918.
In March 1919, a West Asheville substation was opened at 417 Haywood Road. The J. H. Buckner building, previously used as a grocery, was remodeled to provide sleeping quarters for the volunteers. The city rented the building. Hose Company 4 operated a Reo combination chemical and hose truck.
The substation answered its first call at 9:24 a.m. on March 27, 1919. The roof of the R. P. Hayes residence just beyond the end of the street car line had caught fire. Damage did not exceed $10.
Legeros photo, 2006.
Bartlett Street
Built 1923 / Relocated 1975
Demolished
The original Station 2 on Bartlett Street (above right) opened on March 17, 1922, and with a banquet held at the new station, with Mayor Gallatin Roberts and Fire Chief A. L. Duckett presiding. The "substation" was proposed by public safety department commissioner R. L. Patrick in late February 1921, reported the Asheville Citizen-Times on February 27, 1921. The deed to the property had already been procured.
The station answered its first call on March 18, 1922, for a false alarm of the fire. Their response area was equipped with fifteen alarm boxes. Beginning April 1924, the station operated with a full-time crew April 1, 1924. The first company was called Hose 3, then Engine 3. Around 1925, the company was renamed Engine 2. The single-story, single-bay station included individual bedrooms, a feature not repeated for several decades.
In 1975, Station 2 was relocated to 315 Livingston Street. The old station was later demolished.
Courtesy of Asheville Fire
Department
Courtesy of History of the Asheville Fire Department
421 Haywood Road
Opened 1923 /
Relocated 1979
Commercial occupancy
Asheville's original Station 3 was built in 1922-23 and opened in 1923. Located two doors down from the volunteer company's rented quarters, it officially opened on April 17, 1923. The $28,000 facility operated with a full-time crew beginning April 1, 1924. The fire company was named Engine 4 for the first few years. By 1925, the company was named Engine 3. By 1928, the station also housed Truck 4.
In August 1979, Engine 3 and a county ambulance relocated to new Station 3 at 50 Oregon Avenue. The 4,888 square-foot structure is presently occupied by a glass factory.
Legeros photo, 2006.
Courtesy Pack Memorial Library - West Asheville Photo Album, West Asheville
History Project Collection, West Asheville Library and Buncombe County Special
Collections,via https://archive.org/details/ms-302-003
300 Merrimon Avenue
Opened 1927 / Closed 1975
Fire department storage
Designed by renowned architect Douglas D. Ellington, Asheville's fourth fire station opened on August 15, 1927. The building included a six-story drill tower. The station later housed a truck company. After mechanical problems removed the aerial from service, Ladder 4 operated using a reserve engine.
Closed in 1976, it was retained by the city and opened in 1997 as the home of the Arson Task Force. It also housed the fire department archives in 2006. Named for the retired Captain who formed the Arson Task Force, the Harvey Shuford Building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
No new Station 4 opened until 1988, when the Skyland Fire Department main station at Hendersonville Road and Miller Drive was annexed by the city. The facility became Station 4.
Legeros photo, 2006.
Miller Road
Opened 1988 / Relocated 1998
Demolished
The second Station 4 opened in 1988 at Skyland Fire Department's main station on Miller Road at Hendersonville Road, after the area was annexed by Asheville. The city contracted with SFD to being occupying the building and paying for maintenance. Thirteen full-time Skyland firefighters were hired as Asheville fires. No other equipment, apparatus, or buildings changed ownership.
In 1998, a new Station 4 was constructed at the same location. Addressed 9 Miller Drive, it serves as both Asheville Station 4 and Buncombe County Station 21, for Skyland Fire Department. The old station was subsequently demolished.
10 Biltmore Plaza
Opened 1929 /
Relocated 1975
Commercial occupancy
Designed by Biltmore Estate architect Richard Morris Hunt, the 1895 building served as a management office for the Biltmore Company. By 1925, a small garage had been added in the rear and was used by the Biltmore Village Fire Department. In 1929, the city purchased the property. The top floor was converted to living space for firefighters. The bottom floor was rented to the Biltmore Company.
Station 5 opened on August 29, 1929. Within a few years, the rear garage was enlarged and expanded by the WPA. In May 1975, a new Station 5 opened at 1030 Hendersonville Road.
The Biltmore Company later repurchased the property and removed the garage. The 5,622 square-foot structure is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Legeros photo, 2006.
Original and second apparatus garage building. Courtesy
Asheville Fire Department.
Courtesy Pack Memorial Library - Sandra Jackson collection,
upscaled from low-res print scan, Fairview Community History
Project collection, West Asheville Library and Buncombe
County Special Collections.
Sanborn Map, 1925
771 Tunnel Road
Opened 1960 / Relocated 1966
Demolished
The original Station 8 at 771 Tunnel Road occupied a house with an added garage. It was opened on June 6, 1960. It was relocated to a new engine house at 900 Tunnel Road, which was opened in February 1966. The building was subsequently used as a county ambulance station, when Asheville-Buncombe County Ambulance Department started operation on August 31, 1966, at midnight. The structure is no longer standing.
749 Fairview Road
Opened 1960 / Replaced 1967
Demolished
The original Station 9 at 749 Fairview Road also occupied a house with an added garage. It was also opened on June 6, 1960, and operated until a dedicated facility opened on the same lot in October 1967. During the year-long construction, Engine 9 was housed at Station 5.
Asheville Citizen-Times photo, May 3, 1963 - City council
inspecting the parcel where a new Station 9 will be erected.
Other former fire stations include the original City Hall on the east side of Court Square. The engine house was attached to the north side of the 1880s building.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, 1885
Larger facilities were provided when the second City Hall opened on East Pack Square (shown below). Built in 1892, the combination City Hall and Market House included a conical tower that was later removed.
The fire station operated with a full-time crew beginning April 15, 1924. In March 1926, a new municipal building and fire station opened. The 1892 city hall building was demolished starting the same month.
Top left, courtesy Pack Memorial Library via Preservation Society of Asheville
Buncombe, Arthur J. Wills: Another British Architect In Asheville-Part 1, via
https://psabc.org/arthur-j-wills-another-british-architect-in-asheville-part-1
Top right, [goes here]
Bottom, postcard circa 1915-1930 via North
Carolina Postcards, North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill
By 1917, a colored fire company operated from a hose house at the corner of Hazzard and Pine Streets southeast of the downtown area. The ten volunteers utilized a hand-drawn hose reel with 600 feet of hose. They protected a primarily residential area that also included several churches and school buildings.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, 1917
Biltmore Village was created by George Vanderbilt in the late 1890s as a model rental community to his nearby Biltmore Estate. All buildings were owned by the Vanderbilt Estate. The Biltmore Fire Department, also known as the Biltmore Volunteer Fire Department, was established in 1903. It served both the village and the estate. Within seven years, it had ten volunteers operating a hose wagon and a hose reel. A small fire station was located on Brook Street between Plaza and Swan streets. The village was also equipped with fire hydrants.
Following the great flood of 1916, the village was sold in 1917. The fire department remained in operation. By the time of the publication of a Sanborn Fire Insurance Map dated 1925, BVFD relocated to rear to a small building on the west side of the Biltmore Company office building.. In February 1926, BVFD acquired a new Ahrens Fox NS-4 engine with a 750 GPM pump. The engine cost more than $13,000 and arrived in Asheville on February 14, 1926.
In 1929, the deaprtment disbanded after the city of Asheville assumed fire protection. The city also took ownership of the Ahrens Fox pumper and occupaied the Biltmore Company office building as quarters for the full-time fire company.
“Biltmore Fire Station – July 1902” – Drawing by Richard Sharp Smith
– Courtesy UNC Asheville, Richard Sharp South Collection
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, 1917
Biltmore Forest, located south of Biltmore Village, was created in the early 1920s as a planned residential community. In 1923, the town services were designed and included a fire department. Early apparatus included a 1929 Packard/American LaFrance Type 91 fire engine. The combination fire and police station (above) was located on Vanderbilt Road.
By 1935, the Biltmore Forest Fire Department consisted of five paid men and 20 volunteers. In later decades, the department operated a 1959 Ford F-750/American LaFrance 750/500 and a circa 1986 Ford C-1000/Grumman.
The fire department ceased operation in 1995. The fire department included both Public Safety Officers who were combination police/firefighters, and five paid firefighters. The town's Police Chief was also the Fire Chief.
From 1995 to 2013, the Asheville Fire Department provided contracted fire protection to the town. The Skyland Fire Department was subsequently contracted, and built a fire station at 7 Valley Springs Road as a joint venture between SFD and Biltmore Forest.
Biltmore Forest police and former fire
station, 355 Vanderbilt Road - Legeros photo, 2006
A version of this article was published on FireNews.net on November 13, 2006. This article was updated with revised Biltmore Forest Fire Department information in July 2014.
Copyright 2023 by Michael J. Legeros This page was extensively reformatted and updated with new and corrected information in August 2024.