Sound The Alarm

Craft Brewers Stoked Over Retired Firehouses

- Kerby Meyers

In most neighborhoods and towns, few buildings hold the cachet of the old fire house: its blend of function, historic flair, and community connections. Although in about 20 such structures—now decommissioned— around the US, craft breweries are adding new chapters to the already rich histories of these local landmarks. Chapters that often include surprises.

Consider the one-time central fire station in Bossier City, La., which was built in 1953 and now serves as the home of Flying Heart Brewing. To install a new floor drainage system, co-owner Ben Hart had to cut a 130-foot trench through the building’s thick cement floor—8 inches of concrete designed to support the weight of heavy rescue vehicles.

In Muskogee, Okla., Garry and Ann Page are converting the city’s second fire house, built in 1904, into a brewery. When the thoroughly soaked ceiling literally blanketed the floor in a portion of the aging structure, they dubbed the space “the mush room.” It wasn’t the only challenge they faced.

To the west, in a largely residential corner of Colorado’s capital city, Station 26 Brewing Company founder and president Justin Baccary was forced to run new power lines for two blocks as he transformed a nearly 60-year-old fire department building into a facility for beer.

Less imposing but curious nonetheless, Fire house Brewing Company owner Bob Fuchs discovered a nest of fire hose nozzles behind a wall when he began renovating his 1915 building in Rapid City, S.D. These and other unique twists and turns abound, but seem to only bolster the appreciation the current residents hold for their brewery’s adopted homes.

“It was meant to be a building that lasts, as old as it is,” says Hart, who borrowed a friend’s jackhammer and diamond saw to conquer the concrete block that anchors Flying Heart. “It’s built like a tank.”