Bangor Hose House No. 5 facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Bangor Hose House No. 5
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Engine and Hose Co. No. 5
Location in Maine Location in the United States
Location	247 State Street, Bangor, Maine
Area	less than one acre
Built	1897
Architect	Wilfred E. Mansur
Architectural style	Romanesque
NRHP reference No.	97001130
Added to NRHP	September 11, 1997

Bangor Hose House No. 5 (originally called Hose 8, and also known as the State Street Fire Station), is an historic fire station at 247 State Street in Bangor, Maine. Built in 1897, it served as a fire house for about a century. It now houses the Hose 5 Fire Museum, a city-operated museum devoted to its fire history. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

Description and history

The former House House No. 5 is a two-story brick building, standing on the south side of State Street (United States Route 2), east of downtown Bangor, between Salem Court and Merrimac Street. It is Romanesque Revival in style, with a dormered hip roof and a three-story hose drying tower topped by an open belfry. It has two round-arch equipment bays, with a pedestrian entrance, also round-arched to their right. Second-floor windows are recessed in corbelled round-arch openings, and the tower features a band of decorative brickwork below the belfry.

The building was built in 1897 from a design by Bangor architect Wilfred E. Mansur, and represents one of his finest works in the Romanesque style. Built in the days when fire equipment was drawn by horses, it served the city as a fire station until 1993, when it was converted into a museum, which is operated by the members of the Bangor Fire Department. It is home to a 1917 Garford Pumper, the first motorized fire engine used by the nearby Old Town Fire Department as well as Gamewell Fire Boxes, a collection of antique breathing apparatus, and other historic fire fighting equipment and engines. Admission is free, open Saturdays 9-12 through the summer.