HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY
ALHAMBRA FIRE STATION NO. 4
(FIRE STATION NO. 74).
HABS No. CA—2292
LOCATION:
2505 West Norwood Place, Alhambra, Los Angeles County. California
SIGNIFICANCE:
Station No. 74 was one of two beautiful 1930 vintage, brick bungalow-type fire stations in Alhambra. The other fire station, Station No. 72, still exists in the City.
DESCRIPTION:
Single-story, unreinforced, triple thickness masonry, bungalow-type tire station built to accommodate five Fire Fighters, with wood framed roof structures, Spanish tile roof, apparatus room built to accommodate two 1930 vintage fire trucks, and a brick hose tower which doubled as a drill tower and rose 20—feat above the station.
HISTORY:
Designed by Richard C. Farrell, Architect, acid built by C. B. Stratton Construction Company Of Temple City, California. Construction begun April 3, 1931, and was completed October of that same year at a cost of $15,000.
Station No. 4, later renumbered to Station No. 74, (Under the Area C Number System), served continuously as a fire station housing Engine Company 74, Reserve Engine 75, and three to four fire fighters until October 1, 1987.
On that date, at 7:42 A.M., an earthquake measured at 5.9 on the Richter Scale, hit the City of Alhambra, severely damaging Station 72 and Station 74 rendering them both unsafe and uninhabitable. The hose tower was reduced to roof level shortly after the earthquake to reduce the chance of an aftershock destroying the tower and the station, until the final disposition of the station could be achieved.
After a thorough study of the cost of reconstruction and the limited usefulness of the facility after reconstruction, the City Council and the Fire Department found it would be in the City’ s best interest to build a new facility to serve as Station 74.
SOURCES:
Alhambra Fire Department History and the Alhambra Post Advocate.
HISTORIAN:
Christopher L. Arnold. Alhambra Fire Department Historian, January 24, 1990.
LOC (Library of Congress)
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