Original Station

In the newly formed fire district in 1940, the first fire station was located at 10670 Main Street in Roscoe, Illinois.

Roscoe residents, Fred and Cornelia Day, sold a strip of property to the fire district for $1.00 on October 8, 1940. Then in 1946, Bert Lamont donated more land of the surrounding lot, increasing the size of the lot the district owned. The combined lots had a 72 foot by 82 foot two-bay, garage type building on it that already had been used to store fire equipment.

Before Highway 251 was built on the west side of town, the old Highway 51 was Main Street. Cars and trucks would come through town fairly fast. There were times that the firefighters had to put out stop signs in the street to stop traffic in order to get the trucks out of the station safely.

The $74,000 bond issue voted on in May of 1958 gave the district $33,500 to remodel and add an addition to the original fire station. The new portion of the firehouse was 74 feet by 56 feet including a 36 foot apparatus floor with two bay doors. The north 20 feet of the building contained a training and meeting room, an office, kitchen, shower, and bathrooms. Fire Chief Cobby Rogers said the station also had an indoor water storage tank and a well and pump installed. He said, “This would insure an adequate supply of water for rural fires or in the village in the event of the failure of the water system.”

An additional garage area was added in the back, but by the 1990s, the two-door building would become crammed with three rows of trucks. Most of the time, maintenance on the trucks had to be done outside. It became obvious that a larger station was needed. After much planning and searching, the current Fire Station One was moved one block to the south. The old fire station at 10670 Main Street was sold and became home to the Firehouse Pub.