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Ann Arbor Central Fire Station
Also known as: Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum
National RegisterEdit
Historic Photo from NRHP Filing
National Register of Historic Places Filing
National SignificanceArchitectureSocial/Humanitarian1880-1915
One of the earliest and more elemental approaches to collective fire fighting in Ann Arbor was a municipal fire code which required citizens to respond to the threat of conflagration by shouting 'fire!' Later and more sophisticated efforts led to the founding of regular volunteer fire fighting companies. At the sounding of the fire bell, Ann-Arborites in shops, mills, churches, and schools dropped their various tasks, dashed into the street, raced for the firehouse, hauled out hose, hooks and ladders, and pumps, and towed the equipment by hand to the site of the threatened building; their efforts were an exhilarating mix of collective response to danger and the good old human thrill of a fire, the clanging bell and roaring flames, men unselfishly pitted together against a common foe. As the City of Ann Arbor grew, however, the good old human thrill of hauling heavy fire fighting equipment around by hand decreased. More and more frequently, the men seen huffing and puffing along Huron Street with a pumper in tow were actually University of Michigan students rather than year-round Ann Arbor residents. By 1880, the all-volunteer system had entered its last decade in Ann Arbor. One of the first signs that Ann Arbor was starting to take a graver and more efficient look at the business of fighting fires was the construction of a large, permanent firehouse capable of housing a considerable amount of fire fighting equipment at the corner of Huron Street and Fifth Avenue. In May, 1882, the aldermen of Ann Arbor agreed to receive plans for a municipal firehouse. They were firm in insisting that they wanted a utilitarian structure, fireproof (of course), and inexpensive. They fixed $10,000 as the maximum amount they would spend. The first floor was to contain space for a steamer, hand engine, hook and ladder truck, stables, coal bins, kitchen, and dining room, and the second level was to include bedrooms, an office, a meeting room, and a hayloft. Clearly, the day had passed when a sufficient citizen response to fire consisted of shouting 'fire.' When the new firehouse was being planned, Ann Arbor's fire fighters were responsible for protection of a growing university, a burgeoning public school system, several factories, six newspapers, mills, tanneries, breweries, jewelry stores, blacksmith shops, a magnificent new courthouse, library, and museum, and, of course, a patent whiffletree company. More crucially, the fire fighters were charged with the protection of 10,000 human beings. A new firehouse at $10,000, one dollar per being, would make a good buy, if the aldermen could indeed hold the price at that modest level. A plan was accepted, and work on the new structure started immediately. The contractor hoped to have the new firehouse walled in before the snow started to fly. In the meantime, the city maintained its all-volunteer force (the five dollars annual salary paid to each fire fighter wasn't a real threat to the fire fighter's amateur status). The force was bolstered, however, with the purchase of a team of horses to tow the 3,000 pound hook and ladder truck. To compensate for this new expense, the city fathers thriftily arranged to have the horses plough nearby fields and grade dirt streets between fires. When the fire bell clanged, the firemen weren't the only ones who raced for the firehouse: coming around the corner the other way were the sweat-slicked horses, who were probably as happy to escape their road-work tasks as the firemen were to leave their mills and tanneries. The butcher, the baker, the whiffletree maker: they were all brothers in the cause when disaster rang in the firehouse tower. The bond of fraternity forged in those hours of supreme effort carried over into the quiet hours when the fire had been doused, the horses groomed, the trucks preened and polished, when, in that less busy era, a man could escape his job for a while to relax with friends and commune with the world. 'The hook and ladder boys have the custom of taking an annual excursion out to Whitmore Lake,' the Ann Arbor Courier reported in the summer of 1882, 'so they are going out tonight about 23 strong and will stay several days.' While the hook and ladder boys relaxed together at Whitmore Lake, ground was broken for the new headquarters on Huron Street. An earlier firehouse on the site was knocked down, and an editor sighed, 'another old landmark is gone,' no doubt with a troubled shake of the head for the city's lack of interest in historic preservation. The contractor worked hard against the impending winter, and by early November the newspaper was able to report, 'work is being rapidly pushed on the Firemen's Hall. The windows are in place and almost surrounded by the adjacent walls.' In June of the following summer, the new firehouse was completed, with all the appropriate civil and journalistic hoopla and fanfare. The building was an only slightly muddled specimen of the popular Italianate style of architecture, a genuine work of pride for a little city which had only emerged from the woods a half century before. In 1883, as now, civic pride was a matter of priorities, and the proud new firehouse on Huron Street was not accomplished without some cost to other spheres of public responsibility. In January, 1883, Ann Arborites learned from their newspaper that, 'there are ninety inmates of the poor house, and among them at present there is an unusual amount of chronic sickness.' Two weeks later, readers were informed that, 'the supervisors are waking up to the fact that our jail is in a deplorable condition, and after visiting it yesterday morning they have about come to the conclusion that a new one should be built.' The new firehouse cost the taxpayers of Ann Arbor almost exactly the amount the aldermen had promised it would cost. Ann Arbor was proud of its firehouse as it was proud of having wrought a real and solid city from the forest, proud of having successfully joined hands to protect what everyone had accomplished, more proud of that than of the poor house, and with good reason. To a substantial degree, the Huron Street firehouse symbolized a larger transition for Ann Arbor, that pivotal moment when the city dedicated itself to growth and traded the old communal spirit of the frontier for the community spirit of the twentieth century. In 1888, Ann Arbor hired the city's first full-time professional fireman. In 1915, the city's fire fighting equipment was motorized. By then, Ann Arbor had electric trolleys, four banks, interurban railroad connections with the rest of urban southeast Michigan, 'everything that goes to make a city habitable, comfortable, convenient, and attractive.'
Physical Description
The Ann Arbor firehouse is a modified specimen of the Italianate style. In applying this essentially residential style to a public building, the designers necessarily used heavier, richer lines in certain places, giving the building a vague suggestion of later Renaissance Revival modes. This suggestion is visible particularly in the heavy cornices and elaborate window surrounds. The truncated hip roof is just steep enough to further suggest the mansard roofs of later popular designs without departing completely from the more typically Tuscan Revival hip roof. The building has an almost anti-picturesque rectangular plan, broken up only by an extension tower on one corner of the front facade. It is a two-story, brick (stretcher bond) building with three large doors for trucks in the front of the first level. The roof has decorated gables in the centers of the two street-side slopes.
NRHP Ref# 72000658 • Data from National Park Service • Content available under CC BY-SA 4.0
Historical Photos
(1)Public Domain (Michigan Filing)
From Wikipedia
The Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States, specializes in interactive exhibits with the goal of helping both children and adults discover the scientist within them by promoting science literacy through experimentation, exploration, and education.
The museum is located in the historic Ann Arbor Central Fire Station, which was the main station of the Ann Arbor Fire Department from 1882 to 1978. The fire department constructed a new central station on the same block, and the Hands-On Museum constructed a large addition to the historic firehouse that serves as the majority of the museum's exhibit space.
History
The Hands-On Museum is located in downtown Ann Arbor, on the block bounded by East Huron Street, North Fourth Avenue, East Ann Street, and North Fifth Avenue. The historic firehouse is located on the southeast corner of the parcel, at the corner of Huron Street and Fifth Avenue.
Historic firehouse
The firefighting history of the city of Ann Arbor began in 1836, when the village council organized two volunteer firefighting companies. Large fires in 1845 and 1865 prompted the construction of cisterns around the city for firefighting, and the town voted to pay firefighters $5 per year for their service ($98 in 2024) beginning in 1868.
The city commissioned plans for a new firehouse in May 1882, to replace a small wooden structure on the same site. The city aldermen allotted $10,000 (equivalent to $279,000 in 2024) for the construction of the new firehouse, a sum that was criticized in the local press as extravagant given the city's current population of fewer than 10,000 people. Construction on the new Italianate firehouse began that summer, and was finished by June of 1883.
In addition to the construction of the new firehouse, the Ann Arbor fire department underwent multiple other large changes in the 1880s. The same year as the firehouse plans were approved, the city purchased the first horses for the fire department, replacing horses provided by nearby draymen as needed. The first fire hydrants were installed on the new city water system in 1885, and the first professional firefighters were hired in 1888.
The city switched from horses to motorized fire engines in 1915. As the size of fire engines grew, housing them in the 1882 firehouse became more difficult. By the 1970s, some of the fire department's engines had to be stored in a substation on the outskirts of the city, because they would not fit in the firehouse. The population of the city reached 100,000 in 1970, an over tenfold increase in residents since the original firehouse was constructed.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and the Ann Arbor Fire Department moved to a new station on the same block in 1978.
Hands-On Museum era
The Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum was founded in 1978, with approval from the city of Ann Arbor, as a touring collection of exhibits built by local specialists and volunteers. The museum opened at its permanent location in 1982 in the city's historic brick firehouse with 25 exhibits on two floors, one staff person, and ten volunteers.
During the museum's first year of operation, it welcomed 25,000 guests. Children and adults both expressed great curiosity and enthusiasm, which pushed the museum to accelerate its expansion plans. Four years later, the museum opened the third and fourth floors of the firehouse with the help of a Kresge Foundation Challenge Grant. In 1993, the museum purchased several adjoining buildings, which led to the introduction of expanded facilities and educational programs in October 1999. Five separate grants received over several years from the National Science Foundation funded the creation of new exhibits, including "How Things Work" and "Solve-It Central", which toured through many science museums throughout the United States and Canada.
The Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum now features over 250 interactive exhibits on subjects including physics, geology, math, music, and technology while entertaining over 200,000 visitors each year. More than just a local attraction, the now over 40,000 square foot museum has become a regional destination that draws more than 60 percent of its visitors from outside the Ann Arbor area. The Detroit Free Press named it the Best Museum in 2003, and the museum has also received national recognition by the National Science Foundation, the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Association of Science and Technology Centers.
Outreach programs
The Outreach Program began in 2000 to give children an opportunity to explore science in a classroom, library, festival, or youth center setting. The program covers a broad range of science topics, including biology, ecology, physics, chemistry, and math. All programs address objectives outlined in the Michigan Grade Level Content Expectations and include pre- and post-visit activities.
Types of outreach programs
Single Visit Workshops are for Pre K-8th grade classrooms. Series Workshops last anywhere from 3–12 weeks for classes that wish for more in-depth science exploration. Family Fun Science Nights include interactive science and math activities geared towards the whole family, encouraging parental involvement in their children's learning. The Virtual Distance Learning Program uses videoconferencing to engage students in an interactive program, and includes materials and a Teacher's Guide to help prepare for experiments in the classroom. The museum's latest program, Energy on the Road, is sponsored by the DTE Energy Foundation and plans to teach students about renewable energy.
News and recognitions
The Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum has received numerous awards, grants, and publicity for its innovations and immersive learning experience, including a grant from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs (MCACA)
This museum's influences go farther than just those who visit. In 2013, the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum partnered with C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and Von Voigtlander Women's Hospital, both in Ann Arbor, to help fund and implement the Healing Through Hands-On Science program. This program helps bring science and health related activities and exhibits to the museum and to the hospitals themselves to provide a more enriching stay. It also helps to provide fun activities for the siblings and families of patients at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital who may otherwise miss out on them from being out of school.
The museum has also paired up with the Mechanical Engineering department at the University of Michigan to win an Editor's Award for outstanding exhibitions at the Maker Faire in 2010 which was held at The Henry Ford in Dearborn. The students and faculty of the Mechanical Engineering department presented the inverted pendulum, much like those in a human transporter Segway, to highlight the importance of feedback controls and balance in systems. This exhibit can now be found at the museum and features a vertical pendulum that is driven by a motor at the end of a horizontal arm and uses sensors to keep the pendulum in its inverted position.
Among the technology and science driven exhibits at the museum is the Ferrofluid Magnetoscope. This world-renowned interactive exhibit was created by Ann Arbor inventor Michael Flynn; his cooperatively controlled levitating liquid is one of over 250 to explore at the museum.
The museum building, the former Ann Arbor Central Fire Station, was built in 1882. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
Museum exhibits
Permanent exhibits
- Concourse
An open lobby that visitors can engage in many fun activities including whisper dishes, the tornado, Building in a Building, Liquid Galaxy, The Inverted Pendulum and the water table.
- All About You
An exhibit that explores the human body. Visitors can climb aboard a full-sized Huron City Ambulance, hear their heartbeat and measure Physical fitness.
- Preschool Gallery
An area designed for children four years old and younger. Visitors can splash into the water tables, dress up like fire fighters and play on a child-sized fire engine.
- Legacy Gallery
Displays a variety of simply machines to present how seemingly complex systems work. Visitors can learn how traffic lights work, and the magnetisms behind Teslas Egg of Columbus.
- Michigan Nature Discover Room
A pure Michigan experience that includes a soundscape, an interactive nature wall, native lake fish and geology samples. Major funding for this exhibit provided by Hooked on Nature and the James A & Faith Knight Foundation with additional support from Friends of the Museum. Murals by Robert Zuboff and the scientific illustration students from the University of Michigan.
- World Around You
A gallery intended to spark the imagination of visitors. This exhibit features The Bubble Capsule, magnet exhibits, and a climbing wall.
- Lyon's Country Store Exhibit
This exhibit recreates a country store setting from the 1930s. It is one of the area's few exhibits that allows visitors to handle real, historic artifacts once found in general stores nearly a century ago. Inside the Country Store one can see how an old-fashioned cash register worked, listen to period music on a Victrola-like speaker, play a game of checkers on an old checkerboard set atop a barrel, and see old toys and games that children enjoyed decades ago. The store is a tribute to Bob Lyons, an avid collector of historic memorabilia and a founder of the Museum back in 1982.
- DTE Energy Foundation Light and Optics
Visitors can experience the characteristics of light and optics by playing the stringless Laser harp, breaking white light into the spectrum of colors it is made of, or catching one's shadow on the wall. Visitors can also watch how refraction bends light and distorts images, see how objects look different under light emitted by different materials, and observe how [Photon polarization|polarizing] light can change its brightness and color.
- Media Works
This exhibit helps visitors discover the science of television and telecommunications.
New exhibits
- Blast Off
Allows visitors to fill a rocket with pressurized air and launch a rocket into the air. Designed by Creative Machines, one can test how much pressure it takes for a rocket to reach our ceiling. Each rocket locks into place and fills with a variable amount of air pressure.
- Recollections
As one dances to a variety of music, a camera senses one's movements and transforms them into colorful images on a screen.
- Block Party II
The Block Party is a creative construction site for junior architects and engineers. Visitors can build towers and structures by using foam blocks.
- Magnetoscope
Allows people to manipulate magnetic fields to create amazing patterns in ferrofluid. Guests turn one of the cranks clockwise or counterclockwise to raise and lower the magnets and observe the fluid as it changes shape and shows changes in the magnetic field.
References
External links
- Media related to Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum at Wikimedia Commons
- Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum
- Michigan Grade Level Content Expectations
Content available under CC BY-SA 4.0
Building Details
- Year Built
- 1883
- Address
- Corner of 5th Ave. and Huron St., Ann Arbor, MI
- Style
- Italianate
- Building Type
- fire station
- National Register
- Listed
- Ref# 72000658
