Old Fire Station One is located in downtown San Jose at Market Street and St. James Street, right next to new Fire Station One which opened in 2000. Old Fire Station One sits on .46 acre. It was in service from 1951 until 2000. Today it is owned by the City of San Jose’s Redevelopment Agency.
The San Jose Fire Museum (SJFM) is a non-profit organization created to provide service to the San Jose Fire Department (SJFD) and the City of San Jose while preserving the history of the SJFD. The SJFM started in the early 1970’s and was originally called the San Jose Muster Team. In 2002, we changed our name to the SJFM, became incorporated and received a 510 (c) 3 non-profit status from the State of California.
Today, the SJFM’s highest priority is saving Old Fire Station One. In May 2007, the SJFM made a presentation to Harry Mavrogenes, the Executive Director of the Redevelopment Agency. We asked for the opportunity to secure and maintain Old Fire Station One and secure a long term lease agreement while we develop a funding strategy to rebuild and restore Old Fire Station One and make it a state-of-the-art fire museum in the downtown core of San Jose. At the same time, the SJFM was meeting with Mayor Reed’s staff and Councilmember Liccardo to present them with the same proposal. About a month later, a representative from the Redevelopment Agency contacted us and we were informed that a decision was made that the city believed the best use for this site was to tear down Old Fire Station One and develop a high-rise residential project. The SJFM understands the city’s need to develop more housing in downtown San Jose, but to tear down Old Fire Station One which sits on such a small parcel does not make sense.
The SJFM is determined to save the 56-year-old Art Deco-style station. It has a high historical evaluation score and served the SJFD for one third of its great history. Our goal is to turn this site into the most complete fire museum in the country. As part of our final phase, we plan to construct a third building in the backyard of Old Fire Station One. The original station facade from the 1800’s will stand here. Combined, this site, with the new station and the Old Fire Station One facades, will occupy a one-acre lot and will display and tell the history of the SJFD for the past 153 years (SJFD was established in 1854 by the City of San Jose). No other city in the country can claim this.
The SJFM feels the Fire Station One Museum proposal will create a destination for visitors staying in the downtown. It would connect the Downtown Walking History Tour between Fallon House and Peralta Adobe and the Courthouse, Post Office and St. James Park. The SJFM also has one of the finest and largest collections of fire apparatus, tools and equipment and one of the best written histories in the country. This museum would be the pride of our citizens and a place for every school in the San Jose area to take their kids on a field trip and learn fire safety education annually.
John A. McMillan is a retired (2004) San Jose Assistant Fire Chief and President of the San Jose Fire Museum. You can contact him at
ma********@ya***.com
Jack Van Zandt will return next week.
My posting today is a reflection of my fear that we have once again gone back to the era when the Gonzales administration seemed like disfuntional parents, and we as children had to endure the abuse.
Reading the Mercury News article Monday and now this on the Fire Museum takes me back to the time when the Fire Bell sat at the island in front of the St Claire Hotel. We as children played in that park till dark playing football.
Then one day to make room for Quetzalquatle, the Old Bell was chain sawed to the ground where it laid for some time. Some things are sacred, but apparently not here in our Village.
It was then taken to St James Park and erected there, where it languished being used by drug smokers as a perfect container to smoke dope inside of. The smoke deposits were hell to remove, but removed they were.
With the 150 year celebration approching, the Proud Bell was lifted with honor and deposited at South Bay Bronze where I cleaned and did a make over of this proud 3000 lb giant. My son Paul cast a magnificant Clapper that now resides in a glass case at Fire House One, and in ceremonial fashion is placed in the bell when the Fire House bell is tolled. The Proud Bell now rests in front of Old Fire house One.
Even the 150th year Firemans celebration was turned into a political event. There is a political dark side to this story. But that can wait for another post.
The symbol of strength and hope has always been the fireman in this country, Yes, there were the fighting troops, and the heros of the land, but day and night, rain or shine, winters ice or summers fires, rich or poor, the first ones at your side when we have fallen ill is the firm and helping hand of our Firemen.
After 9-11 the Fireman became as well know as the picture on the one dollar bill. Every individule that puts his or her life on the line every single day deserves the best we can offer them.
The inscription on My son Paul’s donated bronze Clapper reads “We Will Remember” honoring the 9-11 tragedy. In Paul’s case it was a Police officer that saved his life.
Let’s look beyond high rise condos and find what will sustain our Village after we are gone.
Let’s hope this slight by RDA and the City Council is not the tip of another political Ice berg, as the one that collided with the last administration.
The Village Black Smith
Sorry John, you are going to have to move your fire engines to Kelly Park since Tom McEnery and redevelopment wants a new theater and high rise next to San Pedro Square even though San Jose has many underutilized and tax supported theaters, arts, auditoriums, museums and entertainment areas nearby and housing market is slow
Anyone who has seen the truck and apparatus collection currently hidden from public view in a warehouse at the City corp yard on Senter Road would soon realize that this is no fly-by-night organization or proposal. It is not a question at this point of if there will be a museum, but of where it will be located. The recent failure of some local non-profits to sustain themselves – organizations that had gotten accustomed to getting access to RDA money for capital improvements, is no reason throw out the baby with the bathwater. And the future Fire Museum is a baby at this point that should be nurtured, rather than killed.
The value of having this museum downtown in a historic building rather than in a parking lot near the fairgrounds is obvious to anyone who appreciates and importance of having a vital city center.
A key component of this museum is education, not just a barn to look at old equipment. When children are exposed to the full range of fire safety issues within historic context, their memory of the experience remains for the long term, helping to provide some positive tools to the development of a responsible lifestyle.
Housing on the downtown site of old Fire Station One is wrong on many counts. Who in their right mind thinks building housing sandwiched between an office building, a courthouse, and a highly active urban fire station is good planning.
I have no problem with locating the museum there; and more people could see it than if it were located in the moribund/money losing/and not too conveniently located History Museum.
I do have a problem with using any tax money AT THIS TIME to purchase the site; especially when we need more firefighters on the ground, more cops, streets worthy of us.
Contact David Packard & see if he’ll provide a Challenge Grant.
Would be interesting to see where the fireman’s bell would be moved this time. If RDA has their way, I wonder where the historic fireman’s bell would be moved to? It was relocated to it’s present position during Mayor Hammer’s term when The Turd booted it out of the park.
I have no objection to the fire museum downtown as proposed in your post. However, if I had to choose between the various museum proposals that were discussed in this week’s mercury, I’d most prefer the proposed railroad museum.
see: http://www.ctrc.org/projects/museum/museum-location.html
The museum sounds like a good project and in a lot of ways it makes sense to use the old Station 1 building but its architectural significance is lost on me. It screams (more like yawns) 1951 nondescript & boring. But as a recent Merc article pointed out, all buildings over a certain age are considered significant. Even the tacky BoTown/ex Sambo’s on 2nd & San Salvador.
I can’t support tax dollars being put towards this museum at this time. Not until our misguided leaders demonstrate some fiscal responsibility and stop blowing through taxpayer dollars like there’s some sort of unlimited supply.
I also agree that any residential development on the old Station 1 site is probably not the best use for that parcel.
I feel the same way as Hugh in post #7. I would have far more interest in a railroad museum but think the finished product would end up costing millions more than a firefighting museum in an already existing building.
The idea of a railroad museum in the targeted location is a good one. But the funding needs to come from private funding, not public. This town needs to get its spending priorities straight and its financial house in order before any consideration can be given to funding of these museum projects.
The Hispanic baseball hall of fame is a complete joke. So I guess that’s the one we’ll end up with, probably in a location that has a full view of the turd from its main window.
In 2002 the voters approved a bond to build a south valley police precinct which is desperately needed due to the population demographics of the city. The police department is spending millions of extra dollars on gas, patrol car upkeep and replacement, and wasted man hours in patrol time driving from Mission/Hedding to the outskirts of San Jose in Morgan Hill. The current police headquarters is run down and not accessible to many citizens. Certain city council members have diverted this bond money intenended for a new police substation and instead are rebuilding existing fire stations or building new fire stations with this money for their pet projects. This decision will have a very negative impact on police services for south and east San Jose, especially as the population of this area grows.
http://origin.mercurynews.com/ci_7211080
No public money or cut rate deals should be used to subsidize this musuem, especially in light of the city budget problems.
The idea of a quality fire museum in the downtown is not without merit, though it seems to me that Station One’s value as an attraction (as opposed to its sentimental value to firefighters) is minimal. The building is architecturally dull (standard small office building of its era, modified for function, not style), its historical résumé a bit brief, its location cramped and dangerously close to the curb (of both St. James and busy Market Street). I won’t dispute that an expert may see something special about it (art deco?), but my guess is that this specialness has previously escaped the general public’s notice (a point that Mark T, above, has already made).
Thus, my question: is this building the right place to draw the line in the sand? It seems to me that, absent a classic, memorable structure, the real value of a fire museum is in its contents. Couldn’t the site’s historic value, even if redeveloped, be suitably recognized in another way, like by giving the building (whatever it is) the unique address of Station One, San Jose and adorning it with a carved or cast firefighter mural?
Aren’t there other suitable downtown sites available? And couldn’t there be, if the redevelopment project goes forward, a little compensatory startup money squeezed out of the developer?
As for financing, besides the usual “friends of” approach, wouldn’t it be appropriate (and profitable) for the fire department to put on an annual fund-raiser concurrent with September 11th? What better way to mark our appreciation for the courage, tradition, and sacrifice of our firefighters than for us to turn out as a community and spend an afternoon checking out the gear, watching demonstrations, purchasing memorabilia, and putting down our names and dollars as fire museum supporters? Not only can San Jose use a new family-oriented tradition, but if done right the event would garner great publicity for the museum and attract product vendors and other revenue-generating sources.
Now, I haven’t thought this through, so maybe this particular idea isn’t feasible. But something must be feasible—something that will make use of the good intentions of our citizenry and not our tax dollars.
how will the bloggers on this site feel if the city cuts a sweet-heart deal with the firefighters and later wants the city to bail them out of their financial mess?
don’t forget to comment on this little ‘cart before the horse’ statement: “We asked for the opportunity to secure and maintain Old Fire Station One and secure a long term lease agreement while we develop a funding strategy to rebuild and restore Old Fire Station One and make it a state-of-the-art fire museum in the downtown core of San Jose.”
get on it Inside bloggers…
San Jose has a tremendous collection of fire apparatus that is second to none in the nation. The collection includes its remarkable early hand pumper from the 1850’s (now on display in City Hall), the magnificently restored Amoskeag steamer, an engine that pumped around the clock after the 1906 earthquake, saving San Jose from burning to the ground like San Francisco and the fabulous Knox-Martin, a rare piece that is one of only two known remaining in America. At last count the collection included about 40 pieces of equipment, a remarkable display of American firefighting history. It is even more remarkable because 1) there is no other collection like it west of the Mississippi, and because 2) it is our history, the history of the San Jose community.
There is no collection like it in California, simply because San Jose is the oldest civil settlement in the West. When San Jose became an American town, way back in 1850, some of the first laws translated from Spanish into English were the fire and safety codes. San Francisco burned to the ground several times during its early years; San Jose never burned, due to caution and vigilance. And its fire safety planning and precautions.
While History San Jose has a replica firehouse and might seem like a logical display area, most of the pieces in the collection are simply too large for any current structure in the park. Old Station One is a logical location to display these pieces because the structure was designed to house them, the building itself is historic and the location, in the heart of the Downtown, is a terrific location for attracting tourists and lunch time visitors alike.
To those critics who are not fond of mid-century architecture, I can only point out that Station One was designed by two of San Jose’s most respected architects, William Binder and his nephew, Warren Heid. Mr. Heid is now in his 80’s and still practicing architecture in Saratoga. Both gentlemen are responsible for designing many of San Jose’s important public and commercial buildings. Station One is eligible to be a significant landmark on its own, and the preliminary evaluations for the National Register have already been completed.
I am not aware of a similar project in San Jose that has such a large group of enthusiastic donors and potential donors. The maintenance and restoration of the equipment is the result of thousands of hours of donated labor and generous financial support. The preliminary studies for the building and the business plans for a fire museum have all been donated by people who are experts in their field who are also fire history enthusiasts.
This is also a project that has a large group of financial donors that have already been identified. I agree that a museum should be a sound business venture, have a good business strategy and marketing plan and should not have to rely on a taxpayer subsidy. This is a project that can meet those objectives.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have been a peripheral participant with this group for many years. I sit on the Collections Committee of History San Jose, and am currently the director of the history museum in Saratoga. I feel that the Fire Museum is a project that speaks to the heart of San Jose and is a project that can be enthusiastically supported. It is a unique project and deserves to be thoughtfully evaluated as a vital component of our Downtown.
April Halberstadt
Naglee Park (Station 8)
As good as it may sound and as noble as they may be. The old fire station should be knocked down to make way for condos. The city spent a lot of money on the new station so it could get rid of the old station. Downtown needs more residents to create the retail. That surface parking lot across the street should also be developed. Put the Fire museum at History Park.
Condos? I am certain that the residents of these new condos will quickly find the noise of the fire apparatus and sirens and airhorns entertaining—for the first hour. Then, it will get old. Then, they will complain about the noise, even though they knew full well when they purchased this condo that they were moving next to one of the city’s busiest fire houses. Then they will complain that said noise is negatively affecting the resale value of their condo, and perhaps demand the City reimburse them for their loss. You don’t think so? Watch…..