Bisbee City Fire Hall

Bisbee announced its permanence in stone in 1906, when architect F. C. Hurst designed this combined city hall and fire station wedged into the canyon town. The ground floor stabled the fire horses behind doors built wide for horse-drawn engines; upstairs held the city offices and firemen's quarters, with a bell tower to sound the alarm. Thick-walled vaults guarded the town's records. Over the century it served as fire hall, city hall, and police station in turn, and careful restoration has kept its 1906 facade and bell tower intact, a small city's civic heart in a single building.

What the plaque says

Bisbee City Fire Hall. , Bisbee architect F. C. Hurst designed this building in 1906. Hurst had also designed the Bisbee Central School in 1905., Designed as a combination city hall and fire station, the design was titled "City Fire Hall Building". The original ironwork above the front door displays the letters "CH" for "City Hall". The original exterior included the present bell tower, flagpole and ironwork, including the balcony, all unchanged from 1906., The front doors were designed to accommodate horse-drawn fire engines and the first floor contained stalls for the fire horses. Vaults (walk-in safes) were placed on the northwest corners of the first and second floors, on top of each other. The concrete ceiling of the ground-floor vault is 12" thick and the walls of both vaults are 18" thick., The second story contained a large landing for the central stairway with a skylight. A bathroom on the west wall contained a smaller skylight. The west wing contained offices for the City Attorney, Engineer, Clerk, Marshall and Street Superintendent. The Mayor`s Office was located behind the balcony, overlooking Naco Road, and contained the rope for the bell tower. The second story east wing contained sleeping areas and closets for six firemen with a fire pole in the southeast corner. Floors were tongue and groove maple., A second fire station, titled "No. 2", was constructed in 1914 on Tombstone Canyon. This original "City Fire Hall Building" then became "Firehouse No. 1" through 1918., In 1919 Cochise County built a Jail Annex immediately east of this building. At that time, the City Fire Hall stopped functioning as a firehouse and continued only as a city hall. In 1972, Bisbee moved their city hall offices one building east into what had been the County Jail Annex, and the Bisbee Police moved into this City Fire Hall. The ground floor then housed the Police Chief and Assistant Chief's offices, a hearing room, darkroom and kitchen. The second floor housed magistrates' offices., In 1991 Bisbee Police moved out of the City Fire Hall and in 1992 the City Fire Hall and the County Jail Annex were sold. In 1993 Bisbee architect Todd Bogatay replaced the second-floor skylights with cupola windows and restored the front facade stone cornices. In 2009 a second remodel restored the original maple floors, stairway landing, doorways, mayor`s office, three fireman`s closets, firepole chute and ground floor. The ground-floor walk-in safe now contains a bathroom and the second-story walk-in safe contains a walk-in closet. Stained glass reclaimed from other Bisbee buildings replaced the clear glass in two of the eight stairway landing windows., From 1906 to 1991 this building served the people of Bisbee as a City Hall, Fire Station and Police Station. For tours/questions call: 480-703-7867.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bisbee — steps away
  Queen of the Copper Camps — and the deportation it tried to forget
• Tombstone — 21 mi
  The silver strike named for a death that never came

More markers nearby

• Brewery Gulch — steps away
• Phelps Dodge General Office Building — steps away
• Copper Queen Plaza — steps away
• The Importance of Copper Mining — steps away