Arlington County Fire Station No. 8 (Current)
Halls Hill/High View Park Volunteer Fire Department (Historic)
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Subject of Research
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Arlington County Fire Station No. 8 (Current)
Halls Hill/High View Park Volunteer Fire Department (Historic)
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Story
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In 1918, residents of Halls Hill, as High View Park was known at the turn of the twentieth century, established the Halls Hill Volunteer (Fire Department #8) (Walk Arlington 2014; Maas et. Al 2017: 60; Simon 2018; Jones 2018: 16-17). Fire Station #8 was the County’s first African American-manned fire station created during a segregated era when African American communities across the nation created autonomous social, civic, religious, commercial and residential enclaves throughout the nation (ACCB 1994; Simon 2018). The fire department elected its first officers in 1925 with C.H. Chinn as its chief along with volunteer officers Robert Nickerson (President), Samuel Taylor (Vice-President), F.W. Ewell (Secretary) and William E. Lewis (Treasurer) and officially incorporated in 1927. Historic research revealed that in 1927, the fire department had its first location along Lee Avenue before relocating to its current area (ACHPP 2016:21). By 1934, the department moved to its current location on property owned by the Hicks family (Golkin 2015; Simon 2018a). The first HHVFD building located at 2209 N. Culpeper Street was adjacent to the William and Susana Hicks residence on Lot 26 of the Cottage Park subdivision (Simon 2018a; Jones 2018: 52)). The building was a simple, two-bay, front-gabled structure with a center-ridge, bell-rigged cupola constructed circa 1934 (Maas et al. 2017: 60).
The rudimentary beginnings of the fire station included a team of six who utilized a two-wheel cart outfitted with a 60-gallon chemical tank to navigate the High View Park neighborhood (ACCB 1994; Walk Arlington 2014; Simon 2018). The Halls Hill community procured the equipment for the fire station during its earliest years through fund-raising carnivals, door-to-door canvassing, and subscription support. By 1926, the force acquired a 1917 Mitchell motor-driven fire truck with a mounted 60-gallon chemical tank/extinguisher. Through continued community support, the fire department continued to upgrade its equipment. In 1933, they acquired a County-provided 1929 Diamond-T fire truck, a 1929 600-gallon pumper in the early 1950s. Unfortunately, County-provided equipment was often used, outdated or faulty (Golkin 2015; Simon 2018:8). In addition, County compensation for the department also lagged. Nevertheless, “Fire Station 8 played a significant role in supporting the residents of Halls Hill during the war [World War II (WWII)]. Applications had to be completed to request rations for items like canning sugar. The women of Halls Hill went to the fire station to secure their application forms and then mailed the completed forms to the county government to be processed (Jones 2018: 45-46). After WWII in 1951, eleven years after their Caucasian peers, the County’s first paid African American firefighters were HHHVP volunteer members Alfred Clark and Julian Syphax (Golkin 2015; No author 2018; Simon 2018:5-7; Jones 2018: 52); Clark became the first African American Fire Captain in the County. When the station became County-owned in the early 1960s, it was a combination engine and truck company with a crew of 21 that operated a 100-foot aerial ladder truck. The station remained all African American through the 1960s (ACHPP 2016:21).
The current fire department structure appears to be the third constructed on the northwest corner of Lee Highway/Culpeper Street. The first was the aforementioned front-gabled structure located at 2209 N. Culpeper Street. In 1944, the Hicks family deeded the current parcel to the Trustees of the Arlington County Fire Department Engine No. 8 (Golkin 2015; Simon 2018:4). Planning for a new county-owned fire house in Hall’s Hill started in the early 1960s. The county Board acquired a number of additional parcels of land, contracted architect Richard Parks to design the building, and paid $134,216 to build the station in August 1962 (Simon 2018:8; Jones 2018: 126). The ground-breaking ceremony for the second Fire Station No. 8 building occurred in 1962. The second and extant building reflected mid-century modern architectural influences and was located east of the previous building at 4545 Lee Highway oriented to face the busy thoroughfare.
Beginning in 1999, Fire Station No. 8 was identified by the Arlington County Manager for potential “relocation, consolidation, replacement or closure” (Golkin 2015). County resistance to this notion despite response times that reflected a need to station improvements ultimately prevailed. In December 2015, the Arlington County Board created an eleven-member Task Force to brainstorm options for a replacement of Fire Station No. 8. By majority vote, the task force favored replacing the station at its current location along Lee Highway; service demand location and population density were the driving factors in this decision. The County Board favored the task force recommendations and in July 2016 voted to build the existing four-bay station at its historic location. In recognition of the station’s history and cultural legacy, in February 2018 the County Manager established the fourteen-member Fire Station No. 8 History and Legacy Working Group. The purpose of the working group was to develop and recommend strategies to recognize, emphasize, and honor the history and legacy of the Hall’s Hill/High View Park Volunteer Fire Department and Fire Station No. 8 to incorporate into the planning and design of a replacement fire station (No author 2018).
“Participants in our process learned Fire Station no. 8’s value as a community resource extended and continues to extend beyond its role as an operational station…We learned how Station No. 8 provided a safe place for African Americans to gather and interact in a segregated society…spawned leaders in the emergency preparedness and response profession (No author 2018).”
“Its (Fire Station No. 8) importance as a historical and cultural touchstone that reminds all residents and visitors how Arlington’s African American community had the courage and conviction to strive for equal rights, progress, and justice (Simon 2018).”
A Centennial Celebration of Halls Hill Fire Station No. 8 by the African American firefighters historical Society and the John M. Langston Citizens Associated occurred in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Design of the replacement station began in the Spring of 2019 with its most recent draft design by Architects Lemay Erickson Willcox revealed at the Public Facilities Review Committee (PFRC) Meeting #4 on October 16, 2019. Per the October 2019 PFRC meeting presentation, groundbreaking for the new structure is slated for Fall 2020 with a grand opening in the Fall of 2022 (LEWA 2019).
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Place
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Halls Hill/Highview Park
4845 Lee Highway
Arlington, VA 22207
