Firehouse Mini Park

About

This double-decker tree house with fire pole is the favorite in this tiny park, but there are other things packed in here too: a boxed-in play area, drinking fountain, benches, and a whirl. This park's small trees also make it a good cooling off place for pedestrians overheated by walking among large buildings.

Firehouse was No. 23, built c.1910, last equipment run in 1964, due to the construction of a larger facility on a site better located to serve the expanded service area. The station housed horse-drawn and then motorized equipment.

Seattle's Fire Dept. was born in the ashes of the Great Fire of 1889, a hopeless battle by the valiant and courageous Volunteers using primitive equipment and water supplies. They had only two tiny steam pumpers, hand-drawn hose carts, hand-carried ladders, buckets and axes to fight a fire in a "tinder town" of wooden buildings and streets with water from a system of hollowed fir logs plus springs. The Volunteers became the fire's scapegoats and disbanded in disgust. The Department used horse-drawn equipment until the 1920's.