County of building: Saint Charles County
Location of structure: N 6th St. & Clark St., SW corner, St. Charles
Built: 1926
Architect/Builder: Unknown
Architectural Style: Commercial/Two-Part Vertical Block
Original Occupant: St. Charles Fire Department
Map
Two sirens on this old firehouse. A very large one on the roof. It is powered by a generator, and is from the 1920s. A more modern siren is on the side of the building, from the early 1940s, and it also triggers a rotating light (red) to warn traffic on the side street that the fire trucks are about to come out.
"98. 431 North Sixth Street, St. Charles Fire Department; Two-Part Vertical Block; 1926; Contributing
Located on a corner lot, this 2-story brick building has a concrete foundation and a flat roof encircled by a parapet with cast stone coping. The building is T-shaped, but the crosspiece of the T, which is at the rear of the building, only extends slightly beyond the base. An interior end chimney is on the east side of the north wing. On the façade the brick walls are in a running bond, while on the side elevations they are in a Flemish stretcher bond pattern, with alternating headers and stretchers every sixth course. A belt course of soldier bricks and cast stone is slightly below the top of the first floor openings of the façade and it wraps around the east end of the north elevation. The façade features 3 paneled-and-glazed wood
overhead doors on the first level and 3 groups of three 1/1 windows on the second. The top of each door is trimmed with a soldier course of bricks with cast stone corner blocks and a single soldier course spans
the top of the second floor windows and has at each end a pair of corbelled cast stone brackets.
Windows have cast stone sills. A sign panel created by projecting bricks is above the windows and 4 cast concrete diamond-shaped ornaments are within the panel. Above the sign panel is a cast stone cornice, above which is a soldier course of bricks and a diamond-shaped cast stone plaque with the construction date of 1926." ~ NRHP Nomination Form
"Built: 1926
Style/Design: Commercial/Two-Part Vertical Block
A plaque on the front of the building gives the date of construction as 1926. The city directories indicate that this building was used as the St. Charles Fire Department from its construction through 1961, when research ended. A volunteer fire department had existed in St. Charles prior to the Civil War, but by the turn of the twentieth century the city had a professional department, with a horse-drawn fire engine that was purchased in 1900. By 1921 the department had a motorized hook and ladder truck, and by the end of the decade the department employed five men and had equipment valued at $46,500 (Ehlmann, p. 370).
"This two-story, brick building rests on a concrete foundation and is crowned by a flat roof encircled by a parapet with cast stone coping. The building is T-shaped, but the crosspiece of the T, which is at the rear of the building, only extends slightly beyond the base (side elevations). An interior end chimney is on the east side of the north wing. On the main façade the brick walls are laid in a running bond pattern, while on the side elevations they are in a common bond with every sixth course being Flemish bond. A belt course of soldier bricks and cast stone is slightly below the top of the first floor openings of the main façade, and this belt course wraps around the east end of the north elevation. The three-bay main façade features three paneled-and-glazed wood overhead doors on the first level and three groups of three 1/1 windows on the second. The top of each door is trimmed with a soldier course of bricks with cast stone corner blocks, and a single soldier course spans the top of the second floor windows and has at each end a pair of corbelled cast stone brackets. Windows throughout the building have cast stone sills. A sign panel created by projecting bricks is above the windows, and four cast concrete, diamond-shaped ornaments are within the panel.
Above the sign panel is a cast stone cornice, above which is a soldier course of bricks and a diamond-shaped cast stone plaque with the date 1926. At the east end of the north elevation is a wood door with six lights set above a single panel, and the door opens onto a concrete stoop that has a set of four steps on the east side. To the west of the entrance are six 6/1 wood windows.
A single soldier course with cast stone corner blocks extends along the top of the first floor windows. There are six 6/1 wood
windows on the second floor, and each is trimmed with a flat jack arch of soldier bricks.
"Located at the southwest corner of Sixth and Clark Streets, this 45’ wide by 150’ deep lot slopes from front to rear. Public sidewalks extend along both streets, and a concrete driveway leads from Sixth Street to the overhead garage doors on the main façade of the building. A concrete stoop is at the man door at the east end of the north elevation, and the steps lead to an extension of the public sidewalk. There are no trees or landscaping, and there are no accessory structures." ~ St. Charles Historic Survey Phase III, PDF pages 125-128
"Very few commercial buildings are located in the phase 3 survey area, and those that are situated here are either less than 50 years old or have lost their integrity. One public building, the Old St. Charles Fire Department at 431 North Sixth Street (below), is constructed in a
building type commonly associated with commercial buildings: the two-part vertical block.
The façade of the two-part vertical block has two distinctly different sections: a street-level zone and a second-story (or multi-story) zone. The street level usually contains large sheet glass windows to encourage retail business while the upper zone is distinguished from the street level by the window pattern or by framing the windows with engaged columns or pilasters. In the case of the fire department building, the first floor is distinguished by three overhead doors to provide access for the fire trucks. A sizable wall area often exists above the storefront to provide a place for advertising and to make the façade appear larger and more urban." ~ Historic Districts Survey PDF page 63