The first Fire Station No. 3 was built in 1889 but demolished about 1894 to make room for the new county courthouse. The city was unsuccessful in moving the building, so the second Fire Station No. 3, at Monroe Street and Sharp Avenue, was built as a replacement.
The first section of Fire Station #3, no longer with us, was a wood framed building erected in 1894. An addition was made to the rear, this time built of brick, in 1912 and, in 1917, the wooden front section was torn down and a brick building was constructed in its place, attached to the 1912 section. Since that time very little change has occurred on the station's exterior.
The Spokane Volunteer Fire Department, composed of two companies, each with a hose cart, was organized in the Fall of 1884. It remained a volunteer department until the fateful day of August 4, 1889, when the
Great Fire of 1889 levelled the entire downtown of Spokane. Public pressure immediately came to bear on the city, which responded by disbanding the volunteer fire brigade, establishing a professional fire department, hiring 25 paid firemen and purchasing new equipment for the department. As well, Stations #1 & #2 had to be rebuilt, as they were leveled by the fire, as well.
An interesting factoid concerning Fire Station No. 3 is that, from 1912 until about the beginning of the Great Depression, it housed a complete factory in which the firemen built fire trucks for the department, all designed by Chief Albert L. "Boomer" Weeks. Built using interchangeable parts, essentially the entire truck was designed and built here, except for engines, drive train and wheels. By 1914 half of the department's sixteen fire engines, known as "autotrucks", were homemade.
While Station No. 3 survived downsizing of the department at the start of the Great Depression, it was finally retired in 1991. It became a commercial building, it is today the home of
Spokane Public Radio, who renovated the station in 2004 and moved in shortly thereafter.
Spokane Fire Station No. 3
Spokane boomed in the 1890s ...from less than twenty thousand in 1890 to thirty-seven thousand ten years later. A growing city needed enhanced fire protection, and so Fire Station No. 3 was built in 1899.
The building was controversial. The city had just constructed an older No. 3 in 1887-a building that was razed to make way for the county courthouse. Locating the new station became a tug of war between the fire department, city commissioners, and "real estate sharks." At one point the fire commissioners remarked that the chairman of the relocation committee "is no practical firefighter" for wanting to put the station on a busy carline.
The station was able to fit a hose wagon, steamer engine, and five horses with their hay and other apparatus. It was also used to build and maintain fire department equipment, along with police department, and water works equipment. Many of the firefighters designed and built the equipment from scrap and spare parts.
The firemen slept in the loft while the horses were stabled downstairs in the rear; their harnesses suspended from the ceiling ready to be dropped down on their backs and latched in mere seconds.
From Spokane Historical