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FIRE DEPARTMENT ENGINE COMPANY NO.9 2520 MISHAWAKA AVENUE RIVER PARK NEIGHBORHOOD, SOUTH BEND INDIANA HISTORIC CONTEXT In 1919, as part of the merger agreement between the independent Town of River Park, and the City of South Bend, the City of South Bend, in exchange for gaining the additional tax base of River Park, agreed, among other things, to build River Park a fire house. According to records of the South Bend Board of Safety, an additional hose house was needed because the nearest fire department engine company was located well over a mile away. Although South Bend purchased its first engine -driven fire trucks in 1920, horse drawn fire trucks were still in use. The Board of Safety chose lots 120 and 121 of Horne and Dunn's first subdivision in River Park. In 1926, the City awarded Smoger Lumber Co. the construction contract, contracting to pay Smoger Lumber $14,643 for a fire house built to the City's requirements. Although the bungalow style building was clearly designed by a gifted architect, scaled to accommodate fire -fighting equipment, but styled and designed to blend into the residential neighborhood and be attractive to pedestrians, the name of the architect is not known. The custom of the time was to avoid any publicity of architects' names in connection with public buildings, because it was deemed unseemly for the government to in any way advertise a particular business. We do know that the building was completed in 1926, and that Roy Knoblock was the South Bend Fire Chief at the time of its dedication. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION Classic bungalow style, with craftsman -inspired elements, was employed. The foundation of the building is brick, with a decorative stone string course at its base. The main story is stretcher bond brick. There is an offset front porch entry with multi -pane sidelights, and a side entry with a multi -pane door. The windows throughout are one over one double -hung sashes with stone sills. The square bay window has a decorative shed roof. There are decorative knee -braces under all roofs, as well as over the bay window. Of course, the unique feature of the house is the large fire truck garage door recessed under the porch. The porch roof, like the main roof gables, has decorative knee -brace supports. There is a two-story square tower at the rear of the building, built for drying fire hoses. It is now used for storing washes and dryers and janitorial / utility storage. This is a fine example of adaptive reuse — freeing up the basement for an exercise and fitness conditioning room. The fire fighters themselves, with assistance from fire fighters from other stations, cleaned asbestos from the basement, painted and repainted it, and donated a television, compact disks, floor tile, and carpet — which was installed by an off-duty officer from another station. To quote a Company 9 fireman named Rudy "Everything in this station works, and works well, and every firefighter goes the extra mile to see that it does."