A yellow flashing light blinks constantly in a dormitory hallway on the second floor of the Belmont Center fire station.  Is it some kind of sophisticated alarm system?  No.  It’s a warning to firefighters of a weak spot in the floor.  If they were to jump out of bed and hit the hallway while running to a fire, they might crash through the floor.

That’s just one of hundreds of problems with the town’s three old fire stations.  At the 1899 Belmont Center station, rotting cedar posts caused part of the second floor to drop several inches.  At the 1873 Waverley station, new posts had to be installed in the basement last year to keep the fire engines from falling through the floor.  And even at the newest station, Harvard Lawn, built in 1928, there are termite problems, exposed wiring, and windows that let in cold air in the winter.  Two of the three stations are polluting our streams, because they lack oil separators in the floor drains:  wastes flow unimpeded into the town’s storm drains.  None of the stations is the right size for modern fire apparatus.

Nearly two years ago, in the fall of 1999, Fire Chief Bill Osterhaus made a presentation for the selectmen entitled “Belmont Needs New Fire Stations.”  Osterhaus argued that the three current stations could be replaced by two new ones for Belmont’s favorite price:  free.  The proceeds from selling the old stations would pay for constructing two new ones, he said.  Last year, a town committee was formed to study the issue, and now a feasibility study of the new stations and a professional appraisal of the market value of the old stations are about to be made.  A fire station proposal is supposed to be ready for consideration next fall.

The fire station issue has been studied often by town committees and consultants.  A master plan for the entire town, drawn up between 1960 and 1963, recommended that by 1968 Belmont should “construct a new central fire station and drill yard on Penney land.  Present headquarters facility is very inadequate and egress is hampered by heavy traffic on Leonard Street.”  Additional studies followed in 1972, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1985.  Many of them noted the disadvantages of having a fire station in the middle of a busy business district and proposed new locations.  The same locations came up again and again, partly because of the town’s predilection for using town-owned land rather than buying private property. 

How Many Stations?

One key question is how many fire stations the town really needs.  At less than five square miles, Belmont is small enough to be served by a single fire station—if it weren’t for the railroad tracks.  With only three places for vehicles to cross the tracks—at Brighton Street and Blanchard Road, on Trapelo Road at Waverley Square, and under the bridge at Concord Avenue and Leonard Street—there is a strong argument for a station on each side of the tracks.  Even if the Clark Street bridge were rebuilt, providing a fourth crossing, it seems unwise to have half the town on the wrong side of the tracks from fire engines and ambulances.

A cut in the number of stations is desirable for many reasons, the most significant of which is staffing.  It takes four firefighters to fill a single job position around the clock and on weekends.  Three firefighters are required to staff a fire engine.  Therefore, each engine requires 12 firefighters.  Unless the department has enough staff to assign at least 12 to a station, no fire engine from that station can race off to a fire.  That’s the situation now at the Harvard Lawn station.  Though it is open in name, only two men are normally present.  Chief Osterhaus says the neighbors have the illusion of protection but not the reality.

The most rational decision, therefore, would be to cut back to two fire stations, one on each side of the railroad tracks.  Chief Osterhaus would like to buy a site on Trapelo Road between Beech and Slade streets for a new central fire station.  He has identified four possible sites in that area, some of them large enough to accommodate a new police station as well.  From there, a fire engine or ambulance could quickly reach either the Harvard Lawn neighborhood or Waverley Square and McLean.  On the other side of the tracks, Osterhaus proposes one of several locations for a smaller satellite station just outside of Belmont Center.  One would involve building a station into a new parking deck on the Claflin Street municipal parking lot.  According to Assistant Chief David Frizzell, a consultant determined that the parking deck would pay for itself in a few years if it charged a reasonable rate, perhaps $4 or $5 a day per car.

The Fire Station Consolidation Study Committee agreed this spring that the town should cut back to two fire stations but could not reach agreement on where they should be.  Four of the six members favored building a new fire headquarters on a small vacant lot adjacent to the police headquarters at the intersection of Pleasant Street and Concord Avenue and rehabilitating the Harvard Lawn station.

Chief Osterhaus opposed both proposals.  The Pleasant Street/Concord Avenue intersection is a dangerous one, he notes.  And the Harvard Lawn station is convenient for neighboring communities—it’s within 500 yards of Cambridge and 300 yards of Watertown—but not for Belmont.  The response time from the Harvard Lawn station to the other end of town is 10 to 12 minutes, he noted.  That’s far too long to wait for a fire engine or ambulance.

Preserving the Old Buildings

Of equal importance is the disposition of the three old stations.  All three are handsome buildings, built in the era when fine brickwork was affordable and a town took pride in the solidity of its municipal structures.  It would be wonderful if they were converted to new uses rather than simply demolished.

Bob Reardon, the town’s assessing administrator, who interviewed potential candidates to do the appraisals, said he stressed that they’re to look at the conversion possibilities, not just at demolition.  Reardon said the Waverley station might make a good apartment building, perhaps for elderly housing.  The Harvard Lawn station on Fairview Avenue could make appealing residences.  And the Belmont Center station has strong commercial possibilities.  Interesting fire station conversions can be seen in Jamaica Plain and Concord.

Richard Cheek, co-chair of Belmont’s Historic District Commission, is primarily concerned with the two older stations.  “It would be a helpful to the future preservation of the buildings if we could put the central fire station and the one on Trapelo Road on the National Register of Historic Places.”  Such listing, Cheek pointed out, makes commercial uses, including apartment buildings, eligible for tax credits.  While it doesn’t prevent demolition, it provides an incentive for preservation.

Some Boston University graduate students who studied Belmont 19 years ago took the first step toward such a listing for all three buildings by filing building inventory forms with the Massachusetts Historical Commission.  But the applications were incomplete.  Philip Bergen, National Register Assistant for MHC, said considerably more information would be needed for MHC to judge whether the buildings were eligible for National Register listing.

If we want to preserve these buildings as part of Belmont’s architectural heritage, now is the time to fill in the blanks.

—Sue Bass