Firehouse restoration makes progress

Restoration of the 1904 Waubeka firehouse isn’t quite finished and will continue in the spring, but Waubeka Fire Chief Jason Caswell says a lot of progress has been made.

“The building was in need of a new roof, siding, work on the tower, windows and tuck pointing, just to name a few things,” Caswell said. “We hadn’t kept up with some of the maintenance on it. It was work that needed to be done.”

Since work began in October, all that work has been largely completed, he said, except for new garage doors on the front and tuck pointing the brick exterior.

That work is expected to start in the spring, he said.

On the interior, work is limited mostly to cleaning and painting, he said.

The firehouse is used to house the department’s 1912 antique horse-drawn pumper, a van and miscellaneous equipment, Caswell said. The Waubeka fire station is one block south of the historic firehouse.

The new doors for the front of the firehouse will be custom-made to look as close to the period when the firehouse was built, Caswell said.

“One of our goals was to be as close to the period as possible without breaking the budget,” he said.

The firehouse siren in the tower was refurbished about 10 years ago and is currently operational.  

Caswell said he wasn’t sure of the final cost of the project but that it is financed through donations and memorials that have been collected for more than 30 years and not from the fire department’s operating revenues.