herr2ck: Putting the “House” in “Engine House”

May 2026.

← Engine House No. 17 | Station 19

Columbus’s Fire Station 19/Northmoor Engine House, located in Clintonville, is the most recently constructed fire station in the city that I will cover on this blog. (I skipped Engine House No. 18 in South Linden since it is a largely unrecognizable brick shed today, and its replacement is similar to the modern Stations 10 and 17, which I already covered.) It is a Colonial Revival design that is much different from the earlier Romanesque Revival engine houses, intended to blend in with the neighborhood, and it is the oldest fire station that still operates today.

Station 19 is located at 3601 North High Street in the Clintonville neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by Northmoor Place to the north, Torrence Road to the south, High Street to the east, and single-family homes to the west.

History

Historic photo of the newly completed Station 19. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

The rapidly developing streetcar suburb of Clintonville lacked a municipal fire station, the nearest being Engine House No. 13 in Old North Columbus, almost two miles away. The first calls for a new fire station came from the Clintonville Businessmen’s Organization in 1927 or 1928. Ultimately, Station 19 was built to extend service further northwards. The fire station’s construction began in March 1931, with the cornerstone being laid on March 10, and it was completed in May 1931. Its unique Colonial Revival design was meant to blend in with the surrounding houses, and the architect seems to have been Howard Dwight Smith. It cost almost $40,000 to build.

Due to the Great Depression, the city struggled to staff the station and furnish its equipment. In May 1932 (a year after the station was completed, if you’re keeping track), they tried to purchase a fire engine, but couldn’t come up with the $18,000 necessary for a new one. Ultimately, an engine and eight men from Engine House No. 16 were relocated to Station 19, and the station was dedicated on August 24, 1932. A total of ten firemen worked at the station after its opening, five on each shift.

As was common for the small fire stations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Station 19 was outgrown by the early 2000s due to larger equipment and age. Previously, new fire engines had to be specially designed to be shorter in height and length in order to fit inside the station. Clintonville residents formed a group known as “Save the Northmoor Engine House” to ensure its preservation, while local architects worked to place it on the Columbus Register of Historic Properties in 2003 and determine possible reuses. Ultimately, the city decided to build two wings with larger garages on either side of the original station, which were completed in 2002 and designed by Schorr and Associates.

In 2002, the station was renamed the “Lieutenant Jerry Kuhn Engine House” in honor of Jerry Kuhn, a fireman who worked at the station and died on duty in 1972.

Photos

An oblique view of the station from the corner of Torrence Road and High Street:

The original station remains in the center, but the garage doors have been replaced by windows. The two larger wings are designed in a complementary New Traditional style, which have taller garage doors that can accommodate the larger fire engines that are common today.

Straight on and looking west:

The white shingles and recessed nature of the connectors help make the brick portions appear as individual masses. Pretty decent design for an otherwise relatively bland addition.

Zoomed in on the original fire station: