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Nomination for Central Fire Station

The case file that argued this property on to the National Register: 1,279 words across 9 pages, filed in 1989. Reproduced in full, word for word.

Source document Held by the National Archives in Record Group 79 as reference 89001371, where it exists only as a scan with no text layer. The words below were read off that scan by machine, so the occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the typewriter's. Nothing is summarised, corrected or written by this site. See the catalogue record, or return to the property.

The nomination, in full

Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.

AUG 0 7 1989 FORM B - BUILDING 1371 AREA FORM NO. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 80 BOYLSTON STREET BOSTON, MA 02116 295 Town Quincy, MA / MRA Address 26 Quincy Avenue Historic Name Central Fire Station Photo (3"x3" or 3"x5", black and white) Indicate address of property on back of photo. Staple to left side of form. Sketch Map: Draw map showing property's location in relation to nearest cross streets and/or geographical features. Indicate all buildings between inventoried property and nearest intersection (s). Indicate north Use: Present fire station Original fire station DESCRIPTION Date 1938 Source cornerstone Style Colonial Revival Architect :George E.

Robinson Exterior Wall Fabric brick Outbuildings 63 foot brick drill tower-nc SEE ATTACHED MAP Major Alterations (with dates)none Condition Good Moved -no Date na Acreage Less than one acre: 26, 683sq.f SettingThe station is located just outsir of Quincy Center on busy Ouincy Avenue. UIM REFERENCE19/335,070 E/4,678,640 N USGS QUADRANGLE weymouth, MA SCALE 1: 25,000 Recorded by Fannin and Lehner / J. Johnsor Organization Quincy Historical Commission Date June 19 1986/ May 1987 NATIONAL REGISTER CRITERIA STATEMENT (if applicable) The Central Fire Station retains integrity of design, location, materials, feeling and association with the improvement of Quincy's municipal services in the 1920s and 1930s. As a highly elaborated example of Colonial Revival architecture adapted for a public building, the fire station meets Criteria A and C of the National Register of Historie.

Places on the local level. ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE Describe important architectural features and evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community. SEE INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE Explain the role owners played in local or state history and how the building relates to the development of the community. SEEINVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Building permit. William Churchill Edwards. Historic Ouincy, Massachusetts, 1957, p.217. Paul Robert Lyons. Quincy: A Pictorial History, 1983, p.162. Robert N. Mood. QFD: A History of Municipal Fire Protection....Quincy, 1976, pp.1-7, 13,44,51. Quincy Patriot Ledger, January 7, 1937, p.d-10; January, 25, 1938; June 9, 1938.

INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Commmity : QUINCY, MA Property Name: Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. Form No: 285 HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE - - 26 QUINCY AVENUE CENTRAL FIRE STATION As part of the City's efforts to expand and modernize municipal services ir the 1920s and 1930s, the $150,000 Central Fire Station of 1938. The station was erected on the same Quincy Avenue site as the earlier Central Station of 1893. Built to update facilities and provide adequate space for new fire trucks, it was the first in a series of new stations built in the 1930s and 1940s which replaced outmoded 19th century buildings.

The history of fire protection in Quincy began in 1644 when all townspeople were ordered to have a ladder leaning just after Quincy became a town, the "Quincy Fire Society" was formed among the inhabitants for the mutual 1812, Quincy acquired a hand pump, its first major piece of fire apparatus. ene mitua Paot up against their chimneys. In 1792, protection of property in case of fire. In 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 at town meeting in 1878. Staple to Inventory form at bottom INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Commmity: QUINCY Property Name : Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.

Form No: 285 ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE - - 26 QUINCY AVENUE CENTRAL FIRE STATION The red brick two-and-a-half story building with a gabled slate roof is roughly I-shape in plan. Composed of a central section flanked by two subordinate one-and-a-half story wings, and a similar one-and-a-half wing to the rear, the building alludes to Georgian predecessors in form and detail. Evocative of Philadelphia's Independence Hall (1731), the building's design includes parapet gables which rise from the end walls of the main block as well as from the wings. A central octagonal tower signifies the building's identity as a municipal structure. The building's function as a fire station is indicated by the segmental arched garage entrances. Second story windows are multi-paned double hung sash. A brick string course separates the two floors.

The side wings are embellished with hip-roofed dormers and granite piers between the three bays. A 63 foot brick drill tower erected in the 1940s stands on the corner of the property (noncontributing). The Central Fire Station is the most elaborate of the Colonial Revival fire stations designed in Quincy by local architect George A. Robinson in the 1930s and early 1940s. His other stations are in West Quincy (1939), Quincy Point (1941) and Squantum (1943). The Central Fire Station served as a model for a car dealership, also designed by Robinson, erected in Quincy Center in 1939. Staple to Inventory form at bottom NPSForm 10-900-e (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number Page OMB Approvel No.

1024-0018 AUG 7 1989 Multiple Resource Area Thematic Group Name State Quincy MRA Norfolk County, , MASSACHUSETTS Nomination/Type of Review Date/Signature L1. Building at 1--/ Moscow Streetin the interec National Register 6 Keeper 2 SluuBzan Attest 12. Building at 51 Hunt Street Entered in ths Natiopal Registez /Reeper AulmsBzan 2/21/69 Attest 13. Burgess, Charles H., Hoystered in the National Register /Keeper Alouatgan 2/20/59 Attest 14. Burgess, Frank, House Enteredin the National Register LKeeper Sllmutgun 4/20/4 Attest 15. Burgin, Clarence, House Entered in the National Register /Keeper Attest Ahlrulyur 9/20/89 16. Central Fire Station Entered in the National Register/Keeper Aebru Bgun 9/24/39 Attest 17. Christ Church Entered in the National Register LKeeper AeloeBye 9/20/9 Attest 18.

Christ Church Burial Ground /Keeper Shlmßyen 9/20/69 Fatered in tha National Register Attest 19. Coddington School Entered in the National Regiater Keeper ShlusByu 9/20/89 Attest 20.

Crane, Frank W., House Entered in tha fKeeper Matlonal Register LhlmuByun 9/20/39 Attest UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET REQUESTED ACTION: NOMINATION PROPERTY NAME: Central Fire Station MULTIPLE NAME: Quincy MRA STATE & COUNTY: MASSACHUSETTS, Norfolk DATE RECEIVED: DATE OF 16TH DAY: DATE OF WEEKLY LIST: 8/07/89 9/07/89 DATE OF PENDING LIST: 8/22/89 DATE OF 45TH DAY: 9/21/89 REFERENCE NUMBER: 89001371 NOMINATOR: STATE REASONS FOR REVIEW: APPEAL: N DATA PROBLEM: N LANDSCAPE: N LESS THAN 50 YEARS: N OTHER: N PDIL: N PERIOD: N PROGRAM UNAPPROVED: N REQUEST: N SAMPLE: N SLR DRAFT: N NATIONAL: N COMMENT WAIVER: N ACCEPT RETURN REJECT 9/20/89 DATE Entered in the National Register ABSTRACT/SUMMARY COMMENTS : RECOM./CRITERIA REVIEWER DISCIPLINE DATE DOCUMENTATION see attached comments Y/N see attached SLR Y/N 26 Quiney Are.

Centrat Fire Station FunnindLehner spring 1936 at: Pianwing Dept,- Quincy viRs: South piet:#285 Quincy, Mass, Spuy 5t JUL 1987. rot5 ELM Moalond Ahally Feimlar Mstend Plo+40 8090 HIGH SCHOOL RF.S. C AECHANIC ST SCE PLAN 1146 SEE PLAN 2093 N 574-11 REMINGTON CTE Plot47 9209 Johnd Boyd Camk S'wlding Assacero P'ot 18 2225/ Citt of Qurry 10 VE RES Rcnaro HShre 9518:000 1 AcvrdGreenoa 09433.t Phor 52 inn7salvim 9418: Urine - mis 4690 2Victor- 1242 Lang' HIGH SCHOL AVE. Plet II 14732 Julia mSherrick lot1 cd8. eity ofonincy Central Firq Staton CENTRAL VFIRE STATICN QUINCY WARD THPEF */ Plet 29 8/50 AVE. SE Address 26 Quincy Avenue Central Fire Station QUINCY, MASSACHUSETTS / MRA Assessors Map # 2092 1979 Scale: 1 inch equals 80 feet Please refer to the map in the MultipleProperty Cover Sheet for this property Multiple Property Cover Sheet Reference Number: 64000289