History for sale: Two Roanoke firehouses up for sale

Two of Roanoke's historic firehouses are for sale, preferably to someone who respects their stories.

By Mason Adams
  (540) 981-3253

Roanoke's firehouses are thick with history.

Lt. Bryan Adkins remembered working in downtown's Fire Station No. 1 and seeing marks that were left by horses nibbling the walls. Since that station went out of active service, he moved to Fire Station No. 5, built in 1911 at the corner of 12th Street and Loudon Avenue Northwest.

"The history is the one thing we can't replace," Adkins said. "It's really nice if you're fortunate enough to work with guys who've been here 30 or 40 years and can tell stories. ... As time goes on, we'll make our own marks here, but I think I can speak for all of us in saying the history is just so important."

It's for that reason that firefighters take a close interest when the city sells historic firehouses, as it intends to do with Fire Station No. 5 and with Fire Station No. 9, at 24th Street and Melrose Avenue Northwest.

The personnel and equipment housed in those stations will be moved to a new fire station at 20th Street and Melrose Avenue Northwest. It was one of the final pieces in a 10-year, roughly $11 million plan to update the city's public safety facilities, said Roanoke Fire Chief David Hoback.

And for all of the nostalgia for the old buildings, Adkins said he and his crew are looking forward to the new site.

"I really don't want to stand here and say I want out of the old house, but the new ones are top of the line."

That means co-ed bathrooms, better living quarters and more space to store and maintain equipment.

Roanoke economic development officials hope the two older fire stations are transferred as smoothly as Fire Station No. 3, located at Sixth Street and Rorer Avenue Southwest. That building was purchased by Interactive Design Group, an architectural firm that had offices in Warehouse Row.

"We were looking for an older historic-type building and go through adaptive reuse, restore it, showcase the architecture we do," said Bill Hume, president of the firm.

When it held an open house to showcase the renovations, Hume said, more than 100 firefighters showed up to check it out.

"They were curious to see what we were doing. Many had been stationed here for 20 years. This was a second home to them."

Interactive Design Group purchased Station No. 3 -- then assessed for tax purposes by the city at $321,800 -- for $171,000. Yet even after renovations to both the interior and exterior of the building, it is assessed today at $198,400.

Earlier this month, the city council voted to approve the sale of the downtown Commonwealth Building for $3.7 million -- or a little more than half of its assessed value of $7 million.

Roanoke Finance Director Ann Shawver said then that since city property isn't taxed, Roanoke assessors don't always track it as closely as private property -- which accounts for some larger-than-normal discrepancies.

Fire Station No. 5 and Fire Station No. 9 are currently assessed at $119,000 and $308,900, respectively.

By selling the properties, Roanoke Economic Development Department Manager Rob Ledger said the city hopes to provide those firehouses with new life, help a private business grow and increase tax revenue all at the same time. A sale would take another historic and potentially problematic historic building off the city's property rolls.

Just in the past year, the council has been asked to consider renovation of a series of historic buildings owned by Roanoke: the City Market Building, for which the council has budgeted $7.6 million; the Evans house at Washington Park; and the stone tollbooth on Mill Mountain.

Last year the council also approved the sale of the old YMCA building on Church Avenue to a developer, if he can line up financing and meet certain obligations by next month.

It also may be worth considering the fate of the other two firehouses that were also built in 1911 -- the same year as Fire Station No. 3. One, in Southeast Roanoke, has been turned into a police substation, Hoback said. The other, in Old Southwest, was torn down.

Roanoke's economic development department is taking bids on stations No. 5 and No. 9 through March 31.

Anyone who is interested should call the city at 853-6439.

Hoback said the crews in stations No. 5 and No. 9 should transfer to the new building sometime in the next couple of months. Until then, they're maintaining a busy schedule: Because the crews in Station No. 5 handle calls from three of the city's four quadrants, they're among the busiest in Roanoke, Hoback said.

Indeed -- as they talked about the history of the fire station, a call went out for Adkins and his crew to respond. They jogged past old black-and-white photos of horse-drawn fire wagons, climbed into their fire engine and within seconds were gone from the station.

Source: http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/239566