Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey

111 Beale Street (Wollaston Fire Station)

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The History of fire protection in Quincy began in 1644 when all townspeople were ordered to have a ladder leaning up against their chimneys. In 1792, just after Quincy became a town, the "Quincy Fire Society" was formed among the inhabitants for the mutual protection of each other's property in case of fire. In 1812 Quincy acquired a hand pump, its first major piece of fire apparatus. The first act to establish a Fire Department in Quincy was accepted at the Town Meeting in 1854. The $3800 purchase of a steam pump. a house for its shelter and piping the streets was approved by the town meeting in 1878. The present Quincy Fire Department was established under Quincy's first ordinance after the town had obtained a charter to become a city and was approved March 4, 1889.

The Wollaston Fire Station, constructed in 1900, was considered politically important enough to generate a tongue-in-cheek verse entitled "The Sparrows Nest" ("To youths who've gained admission, through political ambition/ To the sacred "Inner Sanctum" of the Hose House on the hill") and architecturally significant thought to warrant a tracing, made by the W. P. A., in 1939. It replaced an earlier station that was moved to Houghs Neck in 1886 and another later station located at Marion and Winthrop streets. The 1900 station remained relatively untouched until 1957 when the architectural firm of Edgar H. Woods Associates , designed a $27,000 alteration described in the building permit as "Removal of apparatus room floor and framing and replacement with reinforced concrete slab - Removal of existing overhead doors and replacement with new electric operated doors."

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Building Permit.
William Churchill Edwards. Historic Quincy, Massachusetts, 1957, p. 217.
Historical Sketch of the City of Quincy, Quincy Lodge of Elks, 1924.
Paul Robert Lyons. Quincy: A Pictorial History, 1983. p. 162.
Robert N. Mood. QFD: A History of Municipal Fire Protection in the City of Quincy, 1976. p. 35, 38, 53, 69.
Quincy Sun, March 20, 1986, p. 5.
WPA Tracing #17727, Job #106, 1939. At Quincy Building Department.

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
"The turn-of-the-century firehouse achieved a new civic grandeur as architects turned to European sources to convey a sense of municipal presence." The Wollaston Fire Station, built in the Italianate style in 1900 makes a strong public statement on Beale Street, not only for its elegant period architecture but also for the imposing presence of the tall square tower, once used to dry the rubber hoses, used by the firemen. The tower is replete with Italianate details: the low pitch pyramidal tile roof, the arched arcade, filled with small paned windows, and the corbelling under the eaves and atop the two recessed brick panels of' the walls. Set on a granite foundation, the fire station is roofed under a slate roof pierced by one tall chimney and hipped dormers. fenestration is composed of arched windows on the ground floor and rectangular windows on the second floor. Originally, the opening for the firetrucks were arched, with brick detailing and recessed brick rondels in the spandrels. In 1957, rectangular doors replaced these openings. Were it not for this irreversible alteration, this fire house could have been considered for nomination to the National Register Historical Places.

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