Alva Review-Courier -

LAWTON, Okla. (AP) — One of downtown Lawton's oldest structures has national preservation status and city officials say they will protect the building as they begin making plans for its new use.

Central Fire Station — celebrated last week for its designation on the National Register of Historic Places — is left over from a bygone era, when downtown Lawton boasted of blocks and blocks of businesses, and people walking shoulder-to-shoulder crowded sidewalks on weekends as they visited a variety of retailers, restaurants, bars, movie theaters, banks and other markings of the prairie city, The Lawton-Constitution (http://bit.ly/1SmEezf ) reported.

The station was built in 1930-31, the community's response to a devastating fire that destroyed a nearby church that was less than a year old. Central was the city's only fire station until 1942, and it was Lawton's first stand-alone fire station (before Central, Lawton firefighters were housed in the basement of city hall). While the two-story station isn't the only city government building on the national register, it is the only building still used for its original purpose.

Fire Chief Dewayne Burk cited the building's history at a ceremony last week that marked the official National Register of Historic Places designation, saying he especially enjoyed the ceremony because it brought back retired firefighters who had their own stories.

"It was one of my best days, to be able to reminisce when they came back to the building where they spent so much time," he said, adding the station is one of the few buildings left from Lawton's historic downtown and it is located close to the few remaining buildings, including the Masonic lodge. "It's important that we keep that intact as much as we can."

Burk has long celebrated the history behind Lawton's first fire station and he is among those making plans to preserve the building while making it relevant to today's fire department. The station's firefighting crews will relocate to the new public safety building on Railroad Street when that complex is finished next year and become Fire Station No. 1. Central Fire Station will retain that name and become the department's new administrative headquarters.

Burk said the building will be renovated for its new function and while some upgrades will be practical (modernized plumbing, for example), other changes could enhance the building's original appearance. He said while exact renovations will depend on the budget, he would like to see existing residential windows replaced with energyefficient windows that mimic the appearance of the station's 1930 appearance. He also wants to restore windows that were bricked in on the west side of the upper floor and look at interior changes to restore the original character.

"My goal is to get the exterior of the building as close as we can to what it originally looked like," Burk said, adding the building still has many of the features used by firefighters when they moved into the brand-new building on April 30, 1931.

Burk said his favorite original touch was something he just learned about: stone work used at the front entrance is granite mined from the Wichita Mountains.

"It is the original granite," he said. "And, it's still beautiful."

According to the history of the building, the black Wichita Mountains granite wainscoting below the windows on the front of the building was part of the design incorporated by Lawton architect Guy Dale and built by F.H. Daggs Construction of Hollis.

Researchers say the interior of the building has retained much of its original configuration, to include some finishing touches: the brass poles that lead from the dorm rooms to the engine bay and the yellow glazed structural tile located in various areas, including the bays. Original metal light fixtures remain on the columns in the bay area and the equipment room still in use was the building's original equipment room, with its historic wood paneled overhead door that divides the room from the engine room.

The history of Central Fire Station is a history of the community.

Lawton's first designated fire department came in 1911, when city government changed to a charter/commission system (before then, volunteers fought fires). Firefighters were housed in city hall, along with Lawton police department and all other city offices.

That changed after a fire on Jan. 11, 1930, destroyed the nine-month-old First Christian Church in downtown Lawton. News accounts said firefighters were hampered in their efforts because the station's pumper truck had broken the week before while responding to an out-of-town call. The fire caused $30,000 in damage and almost immediately prompted discussion of a bond issue to buy new firefighting equipment and build a new station.

An original proposal for a $71,000 bond issue solidified to $100,000 for the March 1930 election ballot that was easily approved by voters. By summer, city leaders had plans to build the station in the 600 block of D Avenue, immediately east of Acme Laundry. Detailed designs by local architect Guy Dale showed a $40,000 station that featured three driveways for three fire units, hose drying tower, drill tower and smoke room to be used for drilling and practice. The second floor would house a dorm for firefighters, recreation room, kitchen, bath and locker rooms, and a private bedroom and bathroom for the fire chief, who lived at the station.

Houses on the three lots that were to become Central Fire Station were demolished in September and contractors broke ground in October, nine months after the fire that prompted the bond issue. At the same time, the newspaper reported the city council had approved the purchase of a new Mack International Motor Company pumper truck and 3,000 feet of new fire hose.

Firefighters moved into their new home on Monday, April 20, 1931, taking over a state-of-the-art building pronounced as "one of the best in state." The thoroughly modern facility was essentially fireproof because its floors and roof were made of concrete, and doors and windows were framed in steel. Interior doors were the only part of the building made of wood, accounts said.

Firefighters were able to enjoy the amenities that the modern building provided, including a drill tower that allowed them to train with a life net, and lowering and raising hoses and ladders. There was a smoke and gas room on the second floor, where firefighters could mix chemicals to "familiarize themselves with the various kinds of some they will encounter in fighting fires," news accounts said.

To celebrate the opening of the complex, a firemen's dance was held into the early morning hours of July 5, with more than 1,000 people in attendance. Those people raised $300 to purchase equipment for the kitchen and other things "badly needed by the department," such as shades for the dorm windows.

Central was Lawton's only fire station for a decade, until Station 2 was built in the 800 block of West Lee Boulevard and Station 3 at Southwest 17th and Ferris. The city changed, the department grew and stations were added, but Central remained the city's primary fire station.

In 1956, city voters approved another fire bond issue that funded changes to the building in 1957, including new equipment and a second floor classroom that replaced the four-story drill tower that had been removed in 1955.

The building and its firefighters continued to play a role in the city's development and the lives of its residents.

In 1948, the Lowery-Whitehead American Legion Post sponsored a campaign to buy a portable iron lung to be kept at Central for emergency use in the treatment of those with polio. The iron lung was placed at Central in September 1948, with about $900 of the $1,209 cost raised by the community. Firefighters say that in the 1960s, residents with respiratory problems used the station's equipment to fill their oxygen tanks.

Central Fire Station was placed onto the National Register of Historic Places based on two categories: community planning and development, and architecture.

Experts said the building is an excellent example of a distinctive brick Commercial style building and still has its original red, gold and brown brickwork and granite. They said that while Lawton had other buildings in its 30-block downtown built in the Commercial style, urban renewal efforts demolished most of the city's pre-World War II buildings. And, while there are other pre-World War II buildings in downtown, Central is unique because of its unusual mixture of stacked and herringbone brickwork and cast stone detailing, experts said.

Architect Guy Dale also has some distinction. Dale came to Lawton in 1906 to design First National Bank, then remained in the area to design other buildings before relocating to Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1917. He returned to Lawton in 1925 and was working as an architect and the city engineer when he became architect for the city's first stand-alone fire station. His work also can be seen at Becker Funeral Home and in the 1940 addition of Carnegie Library Town Hall.

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Information from: The Lawton Constitution, http://www.swoknews.com