Former home of a Chicago Fire Insurance Patrol company is for sale.
Excerpts from DNAinfo.com:
For a cool $1.1 million, you could own a genuine Chicago firehouse. The home’s asking price has dropped $250,000 since it was first listed in June.
The building, at 3921 N. Ravenswood Ave., dates back to 1907 and has been completely renovated as a 4,500-square-foot, 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom home. The original firehouse doors remain in place, opening to the street for dramatic effect.
The firehouse housed the Chicago Fire Insurance Patrol, according to the Fire Museum of Greater Chicago. From 1871 to 1959, fire insurance companies operated patrols that salvaged furniture, machinery, and other items in burning buildings. Patrols also did maintenance work on sprinklers, roofs and doors to protect them.
There are a couple dozen firehouses still in Chicago built in the 1920s or earlier. Some in Rogers Park, Edgewater, and Wicker Park have sold in recent years, typically as single-family homes.
View from the street.
First floor interior
Excerpts from Chicagocurbed.com:
A rare and unique property just steps from the Irving Park Brown Line station has returned to the market with new photos and a big price reduction. The old firehouse, originally built in 1907, hit the market in June seeking $1.35 million, but can now be had for $1.1 million—a quarter million dollar reduction from its initial asking price.
It’s certainly got curb appeal. But behind the brick exterior and shiny red garage door lies a spacious 4,500-square-foot home with three bedrooms and three bathrooms. The attached garage space doubles as a place for entertaining. If you’ve been looking to get into the events business, this one could be a solid investment.
The listing agent mentions that the kitchen was rehabbed last year. It features some neat extras, like a two-keg home draft setup. There’s also a spacious outdoor deck area to take the entertaining outside during the warmer months.
Bedroom.
The kitchen.
Kitchen and living area.
The second floor.
Interior stairs.
thanks Dan
#1 by Bill Post on November 16, 2016 - 8:20 PM
Mabas 21 while I am not sure of what the plans are for Truck 51 and Engine 84’s old house, I would like to point out the foolishness of moving them over a mile east of where. There is so much land near their old quarters where a new station could have easily been built. When they moved Engine 84 and Truck 51 to their current quarters at 21 W 59th St, I remember being told that the city needed the land where their old quarters is for a new city college. The new college was built a few blocks south and there is still plenty of land nearby. Did you know that Engine 84’s current quarters is located only about 2 blocks north of where Truck 30 and old Engine 51 was located at 6017 S State Street when they closed down that house in 1975 to open Engine 47’s new house at 432 E Marquette Rd. Engine 51 was located there for a short time however they were moved to Engine 43 on July 22nd 1976 and were taken out of service just about 4 years later on June 14 1980. Engine 24 had been moved into Engine 57’s current house the same day that Engine 51 moved in with Engine 43. Both Engines 24 and 51 were taken out of service on the same day. The reasons for those moves were because there was an extremely high arson and fire rate in the east Humboldt Park area in the mid 1970s.
#2 by MABAS 21 on November 16, 2016 - 8:51 AM
Speaking of old firehouses, with all of the new development in the area, what is the fate of E84/T51’s old house? Hopefully this beautiful terra cotta castle is spared from the wrecking ball. Thanks in advance for your responses.
#3 by Bill Post on November 16, 2016 - 1:46 AM
Thanks for the information Phil. I actually lived about 3 and a half blocks from Patrol 7’s house on Fullerton when they were still open. I believe that was the first firehouse that I ever visited. Darwin grammar school which was behind the station and across the alley was my first grammar school. I also remember Engine 114’s old house on Fullerton east of Central Park where they were using a 1953 FWD Engine. Ambulance 3 was located there. I also lived about half a mile west of Engine 43 and Squad 6 and about 6 blocks northeast of Engine 76 on Cortland, but I didn’t know their location until several years after I moved out of Logan Square.
#4 by Phil Stenholm on November 15, 2016 - 6:00 PM
BILL: Over a period of several months 1922-1923, the Chicago Fire Insurance Patrol placed three nearly identical houses into service:
1. Patrol 3 at 3527 S. Wabash (around the corner from Truck Co. 11)
2. Patrol 8 at 3921 N. Ravenswood (around the corner from Engine Co. 112)
3. Patrol 9 at 6240 S. Peoria
In addition to responding to alarms on the north side of Chicago, Patrol 8 also responded to working fires in Evanston beginning in September 1924 up until the contract was terminated on 1-1-1933 due to budget cuts (the Evanston F. D. also dropped six firefighter positions on this date).
Patrol 8 & Patrol 9 were taken out of service a month later in February 1933 (also because of budget cuts), and a plan to construct a Patrol 10 house at 1016 E. 73rd Street (next-door to Truck Co. 34) was dropped as well.
It wasn’t that unusual for CFIP firehouses constructed post-1923 to be located in close proximity to CFD houses and vice-versa. Truck Co. 51’s firehouse was constructed at 6200 S. Green in 1929, just a block away from Patrol 8’s house.
And that’s why when the CFIP was disbanded in 1959, the City of Chicago took possession of only two of the four CFIP firehouses that were offered to the city, accepting the Patrol 5 house at 1044 N. Orleans (future home of SS1) and the Patrol 3/Patrol 4 house at 5004 S. Union (new home to Engine Co. 50 & Truck Co. 18), but declining the large Patrol 1/Patrol 2 house (CFIP HQ) at 100 S. Des Plaines (just two blocks from Engine Co. 5) and the one-bay Patrol 7 house at 3107 W. Fullerton (located just a half-mile from Engine Co. 114).
#5 by Bill Post on October 25, 2016 - 10:30 AM
The irony is that it was really a Chicago Fire Insurance Patrol station that was closed down in 1933 even though the Fire Insurance Patrol went out business in 1959. The real Chicago Fire Department (Engine 112) at 1732 W Byron was just around the corner from the patrol Station barely a block away. That patrol station housed Patrol 8. I really don’t know why they took them out of service so soon though.
#6 by crabbymilton on October 25, 2016 - 8:19 AM
It’s always heartwarming to see an old fire station put to good use while retaining as much of the original design as possible.