Charlotte Fire Station #2

Launched in 1890 by Edward Dilworth Latta (1851-1925) and his Charlotte Consolidated Construction Company (known as the 4-Cs), the Dilworth community was Charlotte’s first streetcar suburb. The 4-Cs acquired 442 acres south of the city for the development. To attract the Charlotte’s quickly growing urban middle class to their nascent suburban development, the 4-Cs purchased and operated the city’s horse-drawn streetcar line (started in 1887) that ran from downtown to Dilworth. On May 20, 1891, the 4-Cs held a large land auction in Dilworth. According to reports, several hundred lots were sold over three days at prices ranging from $5 to $16 a front foot.

The lot for Fire Station No. 2 was purchased at that 1891 auction by James M. Gates for $375. The owner of several lots in downtown Charlotte, Gates was likely a local real estate speculator. He held onto the South Boulevard property for sixteen years before selling it to the City of Charlotte as the location for its new Dilworth fire station. The suburb’s growing population, both residential and industrial, became concerned over the lack of a conveniently located fire station, as their fire protection was provided from the downtown station headquartered at 6 East 5th Street. Even when a fire was detected in its early stages, horse-drawn apparatus was slow in reaching a fire in the prosperous suburb.

Before a station could be built in Dilworth, the suburb had to be designated an official borough of the City of Charlotte. The great desire of Dilworth residents for local fire protection was the main concern of the citizens’ committee that appeared before the Board of Aldermen in May 1907 to ask for borough designation of Dilworth and construction of a fire station in their area. The request for admission was granted, but the request for the fire station was deferred for lack of funds. Nearly eighteen months later, even after Dilworth resident Joseph Garibaldi offered to help finance the station, the city’s Finance Committee finally authorized the funds for the Dilworth fire station. The lot was purchased from Gates for $1,000. Designed by the Charlotte architectural firm of Wheeler, Galliher and Stern, that station was built by J. A. Jones in two months for $3,000. According to a local newspaper article, the Dilworth Station was the same size and design as Station No. 1 on E. 5th Street.

Manned by three firefighters at all times, Fire Station No. 2 was equipped with two horse-drawn engines – one chemical and one steam – and two horses, all housed within the station. The era of horse-drawn apparatus ended in Charlotte in 1917. By the late 1940s the Dilworth station could no longer accommodate the larger, more sophisticated motorized equipment, so a new station was built across the street. Efforts in the 1970s to turn the original station into a fire museum ultimately proved unsuccessful and the building was refitted for commercial purposes.