Engine House No. 5 Museum

Engine House No. 5 was originally constructed in the city of Grand Rapids in 1880 and was torn down in 1981 and reconstructed as a Fire Museum in 1984. Built 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 pride was taken in her dazzling architecture and in her horse-drawn steamers.

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, fully 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. Visit their web site at www.enginehouse5.org.