The 1928 Municipal Fire and Police Station
The 1928 Fire and Police Station was commissioned during the final phase of Avon Park’s 1920s land boom public improvements, creating the town’s first permanent, purpose-built emergency services facility.[maxwell-1976][nrhp-90000486]
Municipal Authorization and Construction
Before 1928, Avon Park’s fire equipment had been stored in makeshift wooden sheds:
- In 1920, the volunteer department’s hand-drawn chemical cart was housed underneath the bandstand on Main Street.[maxwell-1976]
- Following the purchase of the town’s first American LaFrance motor fire engine for $12,400 on 6 August 1923, equipment was kept in a small frame shed at the end of South Butler Avenue adjacent to a small municipal lockup.[maxwell-1976]
On 21 March 1928, the Avon Park City Council formally approved a unified capital program “to erect City Hall, Fire Dept. & Jail.”[maxwell-1976]
The fire station was erected as a masonry building on East Main Street near Lake Verona, designed with two apparatus bays, an equipment storage and repair room, a hose-drying tower, and municipal detention holding cells.[maxwell-1976][nrhp-90000486] The municipal record confirms that construction was completed on 5 December 1928 under Fire Chief W. H. McCarthy.[maxwell-1976]
Operational Lineage and Dual Service
In 1938, W. H. McCarthy was appointed to serve concurrently as both Fire Chief and Chief of Police, centralizing public safety administration within the 1928 station and the adjacent City Hall.[maxwell-1976] The municipal siren mounted atop the station tower alerted volunteer firefighters across town and sounded the nightly curfew.[maxwell-1976]
Transition to Police Headquarters
The building served as the central fire station for five decades until the Avon Park Fire Department relocated to its new facility at 98 South Delaney Avenue, completed structurally in 1978 and dedicated in 1979.[maxwell-1976][sebring-centennial-2023]
Following the fire department’s relocation, the 1928 masonry station was remodeled and repurposed to serve exclusively as the headquarters for the Avon Park Police Department, providing administrative offices, patrol briefing facilities, and evidence storage until modern regional consolidation.[maxwell-1976][nrhp-90000486]
References
- maxwell-1976 — Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell. The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida. 1976. the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md
- nrhp-90000486 — National Park Service. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Avon Park Historic District. 22 March 1990. nrhp-avon-park-historic-district-1990.md
- sebring-centennial-2023 — sebring.com, 2023. Avon Park Fire Department Centennial Celebration. 1 December 2023. https://sebring.com/index.cfm?p=article&v=276_Avon-Park-Fire-Department-Centennial-Celebration
Related
- Finding: Construction and Dating of the Delaney Avenue Fire Station
- Entity: The Avon Park Fire Department
- Entity: Avon Park City Hall
- Report: Law and Order at Avon Park
- Report: Public Buildings and Civic Infrastructure of Avon Park
Where this comes from
- Evidence
- corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
- Review
- unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
- Rights
- society
Sources
- Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (references/the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md) (1976)
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Avon Park Historic District (1990)
- sebring.com, 2023, Avon Park Fire Department Centennial Celebration (2023)
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