Aurora Regional Fire Museum

The Aurora Regional Fire Museum is a non-profit, tax exempt, educational institution located in Aurora, Illinois, USA. Its purpose is to preserve and exhibit the artifacts and history of Aurora and surrounding area fire departments, as well as teach and promote fire safety and prevention.

From bucket brigades, to hand-pumpers, and from horse-drawn steam fire engines to modern fire apparatus, the museum’s exhibit Buckets, Bells, and Booster Tanks, examines one-hundred years of tools and technology used in fighting fires and saving lives. The museum has five pieces of antique fire apparatus on exhibit -- an 1850s hand-pumper, a horse-drawn steam fire engine, a fully restored 1918 American LaFrance, a 1921 Stutz Fire Engine that's original to Aurora, and a 1948 American LaFrance engine from nearby Batavia. The museum is not just about "looking" at old fire trucks, kids (and those who are kids at heart) can try their hand at passing buckets, see the horse stalls and “real” fire horses, and even send in a fire alarm signal — complete with ringing bells and a ticker-tape.

History of the Aurora Regional Fire Museum

In September 1966, the Aurora Fire Chief Erwin J. Bauman authorized the establishment of a fire museum in order to collect and preserve Aurora's fire fighting history. Opened in October 1968, the museum was housed in the basement of Fire Station 4.

By 1980, the apparatus and men had outgrown the old Central Fire Station. A new fire headquarters was built on North Broadway adjacent to the old station. The old Central Station faithfully served the fire department for eighty-six years and there was much publicity in the newspapers about its fate. After sitting vacant for seven years, a group was organized to save the old station and transform it into a museum. The Aurora Regional Fire Museum was born.

History of Aurora's Old Central Fire Station

"The beautiful and commodious building stands completed, a model of its kind… The building, which everybody has watched grow to its present graceful proportions, might be the pride of any city." When those words were printed, in the local paper in 1894, few would have dreamed they would still ring true more than one hundred years later. After a three year, million-dollar renovation, Aurora’s Old Central Fire Station has been restored back to its original splendor.

Built in 1894 at a cost of $10,000, the building's unique bay windows, decorative cornice, and "onion-dome" were typical of the Victorian-time, and indicative of community pride. Over the years the Old Central Fire Station underwent a lot of changes to keep up with the times and technology. When horsepower (motors), replaced horse-power (horses) the building's eight original horse stalls were removed to make room for the bigger and longer fire trucks, and the former hay-loft was converted to a kitchen area and recreation room for the firefighters. The wooden floor of the apparatus room was replaced in 1920 with a poured concrete floor that was better able to handle the weight of the motorized fire trucks. As trucks got longer, the front swing-open apparatus doors were changed to the overhead type. The building's exterior also underwent a lot of changes. The copper-clad onion dome and bay windows were removed in the 1940s, presumably for the war-scrap drives, and to "modernize" the building's appearance.

By the late 1970s, the fire department had literally out-grown the building. A small building to the south, had already been appropriated, and doorways were cut through the to provide another bunk room for the paramedics and a training room, but little could be done to increase the space of the apparatus room. Indeed the new 1979 ladder truck was unable to fit through the building's arched door openings.

By 1980, the apparatus and men had outgrown the old Central Fire Station. A new fire headquarters was built on North Broadway adjacent to the old station. The old Central Station faithfully served the fire department for eighty-six years, and there was much publicity in the newspapers about its fate. After sitting vacant for seven years, the grass-roots Aurora Fire Station Preservation Corporation successfully lobbied the city to save the old station and transform it into a “new” fire museum.

When the Aurora Fire Station Preservation Corporation acquired the old station in the late 1980s it was a mess. All of the walls were covered with layers of "battle-ship" grey and green paint. The roof leaked, the floors were all covered over. Thousands of hours of volunteer labor were needed to make the building inhabitable, yet the Aurora Regional Fire Museum open in the fall of 1990.

In 2000, the City of Aurora received a grant from the state of Illinois to renovate the old station, and restore its original front facade. After three-years that project has been completed and the building again "stands completed, a model of its kind…. the pride of any city.”’’

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External links

* [http://www.AuroraRegionalFireMuseum.org Aurora Regional Fire Museum]
* [http://www.aurora-il.org/firedepartment/index.asp Aurora Fire Department]