Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1977. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“The Old Central Fire Station is a historic fire station at 66 Allen Street in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Built in 1895, it is the city's oldest surviving fire station, and a prominent local example of Romanesque architecture.”
Wikipedia article Old Central Fire Station (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 94 National Register listings in Berkshire County · listed in 1977 · category: Building · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Berkshire County.
Architectural style. Queen Anne style architecture in the United States, Romanesque Revival architecture
National Register reference number.77000177- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
The names inscribed on the monument are those of citizens of Pittsfield who died in the war, either from wounds, or, before their discharge, from disease contracted in the war ; not including citizens of other places, who served on her quota. They are as follows :
It was determined to place it at the west end of the park, in or near which, a large portion of the Pittsfield soldiers volunteered, and which possessed many other associations of patriotic interest; and the park, however beautiful, being not considered in a proper condition for the reception of the contemplated work, the town placed in the hands of the committee before-named, a further sum of seven thousand dollars, for the purpose of making some longdesired improvements. The nature of these improvements was left to the discretion of the committee, by whom the following changes were made : The oval plot which constitutes the park, was surrounded by a handsome and substantial coping of granite, outside of which a broad gravel walk, with granite curbing, was built. The surface of the plot was graded, and a considerable number of trees, which had become so thick as to impede each other's growth, were felled. The Old Elm had fallen in 1861. In addition to this, the grade of Park place was reduced so as to make it more uniform with that of Bank row.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 120 fires within 5 miles of Old Central Fire Station between
2002 and 2020, burning about 83 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Debris and open burning
67
Recreation and ceremony
18
Smoking
7
Railroad operations and maintenance
7
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
6
Equipment and vehicle use
4
Misuse of fire by a minor
4
Natural
2
Arson/incendiarism
2
Power generation/transmission/distribution
1
Other causes
1
Fireworks
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 984 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Old Central Fire Station between 1835 and
1975: 464 Plantae, 327 Animalia, 189 Fungi, 4 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A W Evans, A. H. Mead, A. K. Harrison and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
16 workings within 5 miles of Old Central Fire Station: 9 past producers, 4 producers, 2 occurrences, 1 unknown.
4 still produce. What was taken out: Iron, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Pittsfield, the town this property stands in, in 98 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 64 thunderstorm wind, 17 hail, 13 flash flood, 3 flood.
The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Survey team observed several structures with shingle damage to roofs. Many limbs and several trees were knocked down. Upon observation these trees were determined to be shallow rooted. Roofs dislodged from clubhouse and dugout of Waconah Park baseball stadium. Eyewitnesses with various vantage points reported observing rotating debris consistent with a tornado. Additional reports indicate a portion of the fencing at Waconah Park was also knocked down, and bleachers along the left field were pushed backward. In addition, trees and wires were downed on Tyler Street and Woodlawn Avenue, and two moored motor boats at Burbank Park were flipped over and partially submerged. There was also a report of a tree falling on a house on Charles Street. Top winds estimated at 70 mph.
A line of thunderstorms, that developed over eastern New York, moved into southern Berkshire county shortly after noon on May 25. This line of storms continued to produce strong gusty winds that brought numerous large trees and power lines down throughout the city of Pittsfield.
A cold front moving east into Berkshire County triggered widely scattered severe thunderstorms. The storms brought down large limbs and power lines in the town of Pittsfield.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
1,838 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
The Central Fire Station is located in the center of Pittsfield, one block east of North Street, the major commercial area, and just above the Park Square Historic Dis- trict. Just to the north of the Station is the Pittsfield City Hall. The Central Fire Station was constructed in 1895 in a simple Queen Anne style with Richardsonian Romanesque detailing. It is 100' wide, 70' deep and two stories (30') high with a 60' hose tower. The entire building rests on a rusticated granite table with raised beaded joints of colored mortar. The side and rear elevations are plain water struck brick masonry laid in common bond, relieved only by the granite table and segmental arched fenestration. The facade is composed of four bays, defined by the engine bays and the central engaged hose tower.
The end bays have full round arches of rusticated granite voussoirs of alternating length. This arch rises from the granite table. The bays defined by these arches project out from the facade, and the corners are defined by rusticated granite quoins on the first floor only. At the floor line is a table of projecting brick courses supported by alternating brick headers. This is capped by a narrow granite course. The arch contains the engine stall door, topped by a multi-pane light. To the sides of the door, inside the arch, is brick infill and the granite table. The second floors of these two bays have paired windows on individual granite sills. These windows are topped by segmental arches that rise to a shared granite lintel.
Above this is a paneled brick parapet wall rising to the roofline of the main structure, from a base of five successively projecting brick courses. The two interior bays flank the central hose tower.
/ARCHITECT E.J. Cowel1 The Old Central Fire Station is significant as the oldest existing fire station in Pittsfield and for its architectural styling and scale. Previous to its construction, volunteer companies occupied sites on or near this structure. The firehouse was built in 1895 for the newly organized City Fire Department which was quartered here until 1976. The Central Fire Station was designed by a Pittsfield man, E.J. Cowell, the City Inspector of Buildings. Cowell was a woodworker, designer, artist and amateur photographer. He is also credited with designing many local houses. The fire station is an important part of downtown planning. A mixed professional and commercial use is anticipated.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 77000177, 12 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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