Office or museum? Macon historians debating what to do with state’s oldest fire hall

In a brick building on Third Street in Macon, men once waited with mules and a wagon to charge out to battle fires in the city.

Constructed in 1868, just three years after the Civil War ended, Fire Hall #4 is the oldest standing fire station in Georgia, said Larry Smallwood, an authority on local firefighting history. He is retired as Macon-Bibb fire prevention chief.

He is glad that the Historic Macon Foundation recently bought the building to ensure it is preserved, but he is disappointed the organization didn’t go along with his idea for it. He wants to see it returned to its original state as a tribute to volunteer firefighters, who battled blazes for decades until the first paid firefighters came along in 1887.

“It’s sad that era of history exists in Macon and we don’t recognize it,” he said.

Ethiel Garlington, executive director of Historic Macon, said the problem with a museum is the ongoing operating costs. He said a more viable use for it is to have a business go there that would fit in with the character of the building, and possibly a loft apartment on the second floor.

Smallwood doesn’t think the location is right for either of those, but he believes people would go to a museum there. And he said the museum could have limited hours, like Friday and Saturday. He said retired firefighters would volunteer to staff it.

Historic Macon bought the building from Sol Hirsch for $135,000, less than the appraised price of $160,000. It was a new venture for the organization because it used Fading Five funds to buy it but the building was not on the Fading Five list. Fading Five is announced annually to identify the five historic buildings most in danger of being lost. Historic Macon recently won a national award for its preservation efforts.

The fire hall was different in that it was bought proactively before it made the list. Garlington said the building had been on the market for six months and there didn’t seem to be any interest, so Historic Macon bought it.

Smallwood said it was last used as a fire station in 1934 and it has seen a wide range of uses since then. It has been a fish market, a TV repair shop, a florist and most recently, a tax preparation office. Garlington said it wouldn’t take much for a business to go into the ground floor now, but significant renovations would be needed to turn the upstairs into an apartment. He said Historic Macon has been in talks with businesses, including artists who want to use it for a studio and retail area for their work, and he is hopeful the first floor will be occupied relatively soon.

“We do know buildings are at their best when they are used actively so we don’t want to sit on it empty for long,” he said.

Smallwood said the term “fire hall” was used in the 1800s because it was something of a social club, similar to a Masonic lodge. Members would hold meetings in the upstairs area.

A giant bell downtown would ring when there was a fire and volunteers were people who worked at businesses downtown. Smallwood said the mules were in stalls in the building, and when the alarm sounded bridles would drop down from the ceiling and the mules would be hitched to two wagons. One pulled the hoses and another pulled a coal-fired steam engine that pumped the water from cisterns around the city.

A tower can be seen on one corner of the building, and an old photo shows it being taller with a wooden extension at the top. The tower was used to hang the hoses to dry after a fire. A patch of the original cobblestone drive in front of the building can be seen, and Garlington said it possible the asphalt parking lot in front of the building could be removed to restore the cobblestone.

Smallwood said if the building could be restored to its original state, including the stalls, he believed an old wagon and steam engine could be found to make it complete.