{"nrhp_refnum":"87001374","name":"Lorain Fire Station No. 1","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"605 W. Fourth St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Lorain","county":"Lorain County","state":"OH","lat":41.467401676000065,"lon":-82.17988567699996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1987-08-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story yellow brick fire station at 605 West 4th Street in Lorain, Ohio, completed in 1912 and designed by architect Hamilton E. Ford.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it was one of the most modern fire fighting facilities in Lorain County when built and symbolized Lorain's emergence as an industrial city. It is Lorain's finest example of bungalow-style civic architecture. It is also one of the few surviving works of architect Hamilton E. Ford.","narrative":"Fire Station #1 is a two-story yellow brick building on West 4th Street in Lorain, Ohio, completed in 1912 to designs by local architect Hamilton E. Ford. Its rectangular plan, columned entrance porch, large dormer and residential-style windows reflect a bungalow character chosen to suit the neighborhood of the time, while brick corner pillars and a sandstone tablet mark its civic purpose. The city funded it after the deadly 1905 Verbeck Theater fire drew criticism of local fire protection, and it was equipped with a motorized aerial truck and chemical wagon. A west wing served as a meeting room for the Black River Township Trustees. The building survived the 1924 tornado with repairable damage. After a newer station opened in the 1970s it sat empty for about a decade, then was bought for conversion to a bank branch. It is valued as a local landmark, a link to Lorain's industrial growth, and one of Ford's few surviving works.","period_of_significance":"1905-1912","architect_builder":"Hamilton E. Ford","architectural_style":"Colonial Revival","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Empty for nearly ten years after a new station opened in the mid-1970s; at the time of nomination it was being renovated as a bank branch.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:14.185206-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/87001374.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87001374/a1bbfebb44-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87001374/a1bbfebb44-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"N8hawk","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fire_station_no_1.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">N8hawk</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fire_station_no_1.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100007496","name":"Broadway Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/ohio/broadway-historic-district-100007496/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71989875","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorain_Fire_Station_No._1","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60747686"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/lorain-county/lorain-fire-station-no-1-87001374/"}