Description of Historic Place

Brandon's red brick Central Fire Station, with its imposing 2 1/2-storey facade and impressive tower, is a landmark on Princess Avenue in the city's downtown business district. Built in 1911, it remains an excellent example of the practical, yet picturesque public building. The site's municipal designation applies to the station's exterior.

Heritage Value

The Central Fire Station is a well-preserved and still functional fire hall that, in the tradition of growing cities, serves its practical and necessary purpose while making a statement about style and permanence. The design by prominent local architect W.A. Elliott combines elements of the Chateauesque style, notably a steeply pitched roof with dormers on all sides, with an Italianate tower that features a bracketed roof and wrought-iron balconies facing each direction. The building, a major community landmark, has seen only minor alterations and retains most of its original materials and design features.

Source: City of Brandon By-law No. 6536, July 10, 2000

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the site's heritage character include:
- its prominent location on Princess Avenue between 6th and 7th streets

Key elements that define the landmark Chateauesque-style exterior of the Central Fire Station include:
- the building's wide, rectangular 2 1/2-storey form clothed in red brick, with a 1 1/2-storey rear section and a high tower near the northeast corner
- the large hipped main roof, steeply pitched, truncated by a flat deck and underscored by continuous metal eaves with a wide boxed and bracketed overhang and deep metal fascia with patterned mouldings, all painted white
- the dormers on all sides, including a large central round-arched dormer flanked by two smaller gable dormers on the front elevation
- the multiple windows on all sides, including paired rectangular openings in the dormers and along the second storey of the front facing
- the front pedestrian entrance with its narrow bracketed metal canopy painted white
- refined ornamentation such as the rusticated main-floor brickwork, the smooth-cut stone belt course between the first and second floors on the front and side elevations, the central dormer's continuous stone sill and lintel, plus a date stone, etc.

Key exterior elements that define the building's functional character as a fire hall include:
- the bank of five large square-headed emergency vehicle doors on the lower front facing
- the wide metal fascia above the doors with the name 'CENTRAL FIRE STATION'
- the impressive Italianate hose-drying tower, which features a flat roof, wide bracketed eaves, twin round-arched openings with stone accents and wrought-iron balconies supported by elaborate matching brackets

Key elements of the station's interior character include:
- the functional layout, with the main entrance opening into a side hall with access to the alarm room and apparatus room on the main floor, the second-floor office area which largely retains its original centre-hall layout, and the attic gymnasium
- the large open apparatus room with a high ceiling, concrete floor and walls clad in painted brick
- the tower, accessed from each floor and the second-floor loft
- original fixtures such as a sliding pole running from the attic to the main floor and two 'alert' bells, one in a second-floor hallway and the other in the apparatus room
- the original fir wood doors and transom windows on the second floor, including heavy fir arches over the doorways and the wooden staircases fitted with decorative wrought iron in place of balusters