Our Ormond Beach Location Is a Historic Landmark
The only Works Progress Administration (WPA) building in Ormond Beach is the Fire House. The WPA was part of the "New Deal" of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the purpose was to provide jobs for the unemployed during the Great Depression. From 1935 to 1943 the WPA employed nearly 8½ million people and 1,410,000 individual projects costing about $11 billion were undertaken. Almost every community in America has a park, bridge or public building thanks to the WPA.
The WPA approved the construction of the Fire House at a cost of $12,467 during its first year, 1935. Many WPA projects were partially funded by the cities in which they were located and that appears to have been the case with the Fire House because when construction began on July 18, 1936 the reported cost was $22,000. 52 WPA workers were brought in to work on the project.
The Fire House was built to house both the police and fire departments complete with two bays for two fire trucks, an office for the police and fire chiefs and a three cell jail downstairs and sleeping quarters for the police chief and the firemen upstairs. It was considered at the time a model facility for communities of similar size. Prior to completion of the Fire House Ormond Beach had a volunteer fire department.
While yet to be confirmed there is strong evidence that the architect of the Fire House was Alan J. MacDonough, who for many years lived in Lake County and designed many prominent buildings there. During the time of its construction Mr. MacDonough was the local head for the WPA. He is the ascribed architect for two other well known local WPA projects built about that time, the Band Shell and Clock Tower in Daytona Beach (1937) and the Holly Hill City Hall (1942). In total he already has six buildings on the National Register of Historic Places for which he was the architect, including those mentioned above and also Jackie Robinson Park on City Island in Daytona Beach. National Register status is pending for the Fire House.
Like the Band Shell, Clock Tower and Holly Hill City Hall the Fire House is made of native coquina. Aside from the coquina perhaps the most distinctive feature of the Fire House architecture is the extensive use of keystones, many of which are visible outside over windows, doors and arches and some of which are visible inside over windows and doors. The keystones serve both functional and aesthetic purposes. There are covered porches on both the first and second floors bordered by arches. The Fire House has a very well balanced and stately presence. The tower over what was the large bay and firemen sleeping quarters, based on early photographs, seems to have contained a siren.
15 months after construction started, on October 14, 1937, the fire department and the police department took occupancy. The first prisoner in the jail, which was something deemed worthy of a Daytona Beach News-Journal article, was someone named Sam Davis, who was incarcerated for intoxication and disorderly conduct. The police chief at the time was Daniel Whitehurst.
The Fire House served additional duty during World War II. A wooden tower behind it was manned by the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary (USCGA), along with many other similar towers along the coast, one of which still stands at the beach in Ormond-by-the-Sea. From these towers the USCGA monitored the ocean for war related activity, such as the presence of German submarines.
In November of 2006 the firemen left the Fire House for a new home nearby and there ended the continuous occupancy of the Fire House by the fire department after nearly 70 years. The Fire House was designated a historic landmark by Ormond Beach in 1987. Fortunately the Fire House was extensively renovated in a historically sensitive manner by new private owners and since January of 2008 has been occupied by the business law firm of one of the co-owners of the building, Snell Legal.
Many interesting original historic features of the building remain. One of the more popular of those is the original door frame to one of the jail cells. Another is the last fire pole, which is now hanging horizontally as part of a large light fixture over a long conference table in what was the large bay. The large bay remains much as it was, other than it is now climate controlled and split into two conference rooms. The ceiling height is essentially the same, the brick and coquina walls are exposed, the floor is concrete and there are keystones over a door and window. There is an original window on the internal staircase to the second floor. An old style rotary dial emergency phone is on the wall on the front porch. Two original light fixtures on the front porch are illuminated, along with the tower, every night.
