HistoryLink Tours

Just east of the Knights of Columbus building at Harvard Avenue and E Union Street is an early adaptive reuse project. Designed by Somervell & Coté and built 1908-1909, this building is one of the earliest all-brick firehouses and the first in the city to be assigned motor driven apparatus. The sloping hill on which this firehouse was constructed necessitated the use of a terraced design for the equipment bays. Dormitories and offices were located on the second floor of this L shaped station. The terracing had its problems, leading to injuries, the installation of individual fire poles for each bay, and even to the placement of guard rails. Declared surplus property by the City in 1970, the fire station was transferred to Historic Seattle in a deteriorated condition. That group sold it to a development firm with protective easements in place, adapting the firehouse to provide 16 townhouse apartments. The developers carved the spaces out of the interior without destroying the roof form, arched windows and doors that characterized the original station. Fire Station #25 is a Seattle landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.