{"nrhp_refnum":"76001413","name":"East Side Fire Station","other_names":["Fourth Ward Building"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Douglas and Hopkins Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Defiance","county":"Defiance County","state":"OH","lat":41.28101930100007,"lon":-84.35121647599999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-12-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story brick fire station at Douglas and Hopkins Streets in Defiance, Ohio, built in 1889-1890 by contractor George Miller, also known as the Fourth Ward Building.","why_significant":"It was one of three secondary fire houses in Defiance around the turn of the century and is the only one that survives in essentially unaltered form. The West station was absorbed into a larger building and the North station was demolished. It also served as a police station and ward voting place, and shows a modest late Victorian design for a municipal building built on a tight budget.","narrative":"Built in 1889-1890 at Douglas and Hopkins Streets in Defiance, Ohio, this two-story brick fire station was one of three secondary fire houses meant to supplement the main fire station as neighborhoods grew rapidly. Contractor George Miller built it, and his name appears on a cornerstone along with those of town officials. The building has a three-stage corner tower with a pyramidal roof, round-arched windows, brick corbeling, and a decorative wood entablature with carved brackets and dentils. Funds were limited, with all three stations budgeted at only $10,000, so an attempt to match the Romanesque main station proved too costly. Besides housing fire equipment, the station served as a police station and ward voting place. It is the only one of the three to survive in essentially unaltered form, since the West station was folded into a larger building and the North station was torn down. Today the city uses it for maintenance and storage.","period_of_significance":"1889-1890","architect_builder":"Contractor: George Miller (architect's name has eroded from the cornerstone)","architectural_style":"Eclectic (late Victorian elements)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Used as a city maintenance building; upper floors are storage and the first floor is an electrical workshop. The city plans to keep using it and wants it preserved. Condition is listed as good.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:09.337408-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/76001413.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001413/49387b3fbd-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001413/49387b3fbd-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:East_Side_Fire_Station_in_Defiance.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:East_Side_Fire_Station_in_Defiance.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71988018","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Side_Fire_Station","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60747683"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/defiance-county/east-side-fire-station-76001413/"}