National Register of Historic Places

Elm Street Fire Station

Gardner, Worcester County, Massachusetts
Listed
April 1, 1980
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
80001677

About this property

The Elm Street Fire Station is a historic fire station 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. It was included in the Gardner Uptown Historic District in 1999. The building is presently vacant. 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. 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. National Register of Historic Places listings in Worcester County, Massachusetts Media related to Elm Street Fire Station (Gardner Massachusetts) at Wikimedia Commons

Location

58 Elm St.
Gardner, Worcester County, Massachusetts
42.57799, -71.98504

Categories

ENGINEERINGARCHITECTUREINVENTION
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Gardner Uptown Historic District
Listed
0 mi
Smith, F.W., Silver Company
Industrial
0.1 mi
Heywood, Levi, Memorial Library Building
Industrial
0.1 mi
First Minister's House
Industrial
0.3 mi
Heywood-Wakefield Company Complex
Industrial
0.3 mi

Questions about this property

When was Elm Street Fire Station listed on the National Register?

Elm Street Fire Station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 1, 1980.

What type of historic resource is Elm Street Fire Station?

Elm Street Fire Station is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Elm Street Fire Station?

The period of significance for Elm Street Fire Station is recorded as the industrial era.

Can I research the history near Elm Street Fire Station?

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