Historic Firehouse in Rhode Island Awaits a Buyer To Slide Down the Pole

A historic firehouse is ready for new owners to put their own spin on the beautiful old building. Listed for $3.5 million, the 5,433-square-foot structure spans multiple stories—and yes, the fire pole is still inside.

On the National Register of Historic Places, the former Fire Station No. 1 in Newport, RI, was built in 1885 and was in use until 1915.

At the top of the firehouse is a 65-foot turret—considered the building’s crown jewel. Nobody is sure why it was built, since many fire stations of the era were plain and utilitarian.

“We’re not 100% sure, but we think it had one of two uses,” explains the listing agent, Michelle Drum, who also happens to be a former member of the Newport Historic District Commission. “One being a viewing station, so if there was a fire, they could see it from far away. The other possibility was to dry hoses by hanging [them] from the tower.”

In 1938, an Atlantic hurricane blew off the turret, but it was rebuilt in 1990. Shortly after that, the current owners bought the historic property and began a renovation in 1991.

They turned the firehouse into a mixed-use building, complete with offices and a small living space.

Inside, much of the building’s old brick is exposed. Original barn doors remain and lead into an 836-square-foot garage with 12-foot ceilings.

On the first floor is a small apartment that has been operated as a vacation rental.

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Up the stairs to the second floor, the firehouse is configured as an office, with cubicles, carpeting, glass block, and original wood beams. Drum told us she estimates that an investment of an additional million dollars would turn the firehouse into a showplace. She even has renderings of what the interior spaces could look like after the renovation.

The best use for it, she feels, would be to convert it into a single-family home or a home with office use.

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“It’s really a shell,” she says. “It wouldn’t be very hard to convert, because most of the interior walls are not structural.”

All the mechanicals are intact, and the building has two bathrooms. Most importantly, the pole is still in service.

“It is the original brass fire pole, and you can slide down it if you want,” Drum says. “It was very important to the sellers when they did the renovation that the pole remain intact. It’s certainly the defining element of a fire station.”

Jamestown, and beyond.

“Four or five people could be up there comfortably,” she says. “There’s a second deck that you cannot see from the street which is really the pièce de resistance.”

Drum says she sees the buyer turning the building into a showplace.

As she puts it, “Someone will buy this wonderful property and make it their statement piece.”