Rock Island Fire Station No. 5. CREDIT CITY OF ROCK ISLAND
A historic century-old Rock Island firehouse classified by city officials as blighted and targeted for demolition has been granted a reprieve by aldermen. The Rock Island City Council voted on Monday, Feb. 13, to delay consideration of a contract for up to $79,750 with Valley Construction to demolish Fire Station 5 at 901 18th Ave. […]
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A historic century-old Rock Island firehouse classified by city officials as blighted and targeted for demolition has been granted a reprieve by aldermen.The Rock Island City Council voted on Monday, Feb. 13, to delay consideration of a contract for up to $79,750 with Valley Construction to demolish Fire Station 5 at 901 18th Ave. The contract vote was delayed until its May 22 meeting.The Prairie-style brick structure, built in 1915, is located near the city’s historic Douglas Park which is famous for being the site of the first National Football League game played on Sept. 26, 1920. Sixth Ward Alderman Mark Poulos moved to table the vote on the demolition contract. And Fifth Ward Alderman Dylan Parker was among those voting for the motion to table, which was approved without dissent. Ahead of that council meeting, Mr. Parker told the QCBJ, “I shared my opposition to city staff's recommendation to demolish the fire station with my colleagues on city council. I asked for their support in voting ‘no’ on awarding the demolition contract.”Mr. Parker said he had not anticipated that Mr. Poulos would move to table the contract, but he supported the motion. “My opposition is rooted in the city having not followed a public process to identify potential buyers or adaptive reuse for the fire station – namely via a request for proposals (RFP) process,” he said.The interior of the Rock Island Fire Station No. 5. CREDIT CITY OF ROCK ISLAND“Since as early as August of last year, as discussions within city hall at staff levels were increasingly pointing in the direction of tearing down the fire station, I articulated my position to the city manager, Community and Economic Development Department and Parks and Recreation Department directors that I would not support tearing down the fire station if the city failed to issue a public RFP soliciting potential buyers or developers to identify an alternative future for the firehouse from demolition,” Mr. Parker said.While private tours with potential buyers and developers may have been provided, Mr. Parker said, “a public RFP process was never undertaken.”That doesn’t necessarily mean, he added, that he believes the building – which the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places – should be saved.“I do not have nor do I suggest a viable alternative to demolition exists for the fire station,” Mr. Parker said. “But I believe the city should publish an RFP soliciting the public prior to demolition. My objections are rooted in the process – not necessarily the unfortunate result.”With the motion tabled, what happens next?“It is up to the city council whether or not they bring the motion back for consideration at their February meeting or leave it tabled until May,” said Miles Brainard, Rock Island’s community and economic development director. “The funds dedicated to firehouse No. 5 are from CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) program year 2019. At the four-year mark, HUD will begin to count these unspent funds against the city's ‘timeliness’ which is a measure of how well the city spends CDBG funds in a timely manner.”Mr. Brainard said the city’s CDBG representative advised staff that if demolition is not approved before spring, Rock Island should voluntarily return the funds to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). “If the funds are returned, the next opportunity for CDBG funding to be allocated for the demolition would be in the 2024 Annual Action Plan,” Mr. Brainard added. That plan would be developed in Spring 2024 and the project could take place in Fall 2024.
How Rock Island got here
The latest movement to save the long vacant building picked up steam in 2017. Mr. Brainard said, “Some people wanted to convert the historic building into a museum to commemorate the park’s place in history as the host of the first NFL game. Another possibility was converting it into a youth center, but the building deteriorated over the years so that neither option was considered feasible.” Proposals considered in 2017 included creating a museum for African American history or a building designed to showcase the National Football League's first game at the park. “Funding was always an obstacle, however, and those advocating for rehabilitation struggled to pull resources together,” Mr. Brainard said.In 2018, the Community and Economic Development (CED) Department he now leads was asked to help explore options for the property including using CDBG funds to, at a minimum, stabilize the structure. “By this time, serious deterioration of the roof was allowing increasingly severe water infiltration,” Mr. Brainard said. “By 2019, CED staff had retained Studio 483 Architects to prepare a scope of work for stabilization of the building.”City staff had long suspected the building was eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places but they could find no documents to confirm it. The CDBG process required “a historically sensitive approach” so research about the building’s history also needed to be submitted to the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) for its approval, according to Mr. Brainard.SHPO agreed that the building was National Register eligible and approved the work the city had planned to stabilize the structure. The CDBG also included a "no adverse effect" requirement for the rehabilitation. “SHPO made clear under their conditional terms of approval that historically significant elements like the clay tile roof and wood frame windows need to be fully restored to their original condition or, if missing, recreated,” Mr. Brainard said. With the changes, cost estimates for that work came in at $576,083. Asbestos remediation was estimated at $43,840, which put the estimated cost to merely stabilize the structure in 2019 at $615,923. Little movement on the project occurred until 2022 due to significant city staff changes and the COVID-19 pandemic. “While the Parks & Recreation Department continued to show the building to prospective partners who wanted to rehabilitate it, none had the financial wherewithal,” Mr. Brainard said.The CED’s restaffed department along with the city’s parks and recreation department revisited the challenges presented by the vacant structure in 2022. “The two departments came to an agreement that there was not a path forward with rehabilitation,” Mr. Brainard said, so they distributed a memo to the city council spelling out the reasons for its recommendation and staff entered into negotiations with the SHPO to pursue demolition.
Fire Station No. 5 At a Glance
Fire Station No. 5 became operational on Feb. 2, 1915, to service southwest Rock Island.
August Schmidt was the first captain of the new hose company.
It cost $15,611 for construction of the building and equipment.
The most expensive item was the structure itself, which cost $6,668. The contractor was H. Tappendorf.
Its France fire truck cost $6,000, just $668 less than the building.
A total of 2,000 feet of hose were purchased at an expense of $1,600. The heating, installed by Ward & McMahon, cost $600.
The two-story wire cut brick Prairie-style structure was topped with a hipped roof. Originally, the roof was covered with red clay tile. It boasts copper gutters and deep eaves with exposed rafters.
Ultimately, the fire station became too small to hold modern vehicles, and the building was used by the parks department.
