The Daily Mining Gazette - Published: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 Print Article | Close Window Project targets historic landmark MTU students ponder fate of former Houghton Fire Hall CAPTION: Jane Nordberg/Daily Mining Gazette MTU students in Bill Leder and Bruce Seely’s senior design project class gather outside the former fire hall on Montezuma Avenue in downtown Houghton. The project combines civil engineering and social sciences majors. Teams are looking at possible future uses for the building, which is owned by MTU. By JANE NORDBERG, DMG Writer HOUGHTON — In the fall of 1886, a small group of students who would be the Michigan Mining School’s first graduating class gathered on the second floor of the Houghton Fire Hall. More than a century later, a similar group of students are having an impact on the fate of that historic classroom and the structure that has become a downtown Houghton landmark. The fire hall, officially known as the Continental Fire Company Building, was constructed in 1883 to house the Continental Fire Company, said to be the oldest volunteer fire company in the U.P. Its first firehouse, constructed in 1861, was near the Portage Lake Lift Bridge. The “new” firehouse and village hall was a two-story brick building complete with an underground cistern that would hold 14 feet of water. At that time, the fire department consisted of a hand engine once used in Detroit; a steam engine with 2,500 feet of hose, acquired in 1872, and an eight-person hook and ladder company. The fire hall housed horses in the basement, fire engines on the main floor and village offices on the second floor, where the Michigan Mining School also leased space. In the early 1900s the building expanded to the west to accommodate more fire engines, and to the north to provide more storage for winter hay and oats for the fire department’s horse team. By then the college held its classes elsewhere, and the municipal offices were also moved. A new city fire hall was built on Sharon Avenue in 1974, and the city sold the whole structure to a private entity, but bought back the original portion a few months later. The university purchased the building from the city in 1978, and it has been used primarily for storage ever since. “Both Michigan Tech and the City of Houghton view the fire hall as a valuable part of their shared heritage, and there’s a desire to retain the building and incorporate it into the fabric of historic downtown Houghton as a cultural resource,” said Bill Leder, an adjunct professor of civil and environmental engineering. And therein lies the rub: to provide a practical solution to the problems of renovating the building for future use, while keeping its historic integrity intact. As such, Leder and his colleague, MTU Social Sciences chair and professor Bruce Seely, are co-instructors of a senior design project that is an interdisciplinary effort between MTU’s social sciences department, and the department of civil and environmental engineering. As is typical with most senior design projects, the objective is to provide students with an opportunity to successfully complete a major, semester-long assignment integrating skills learned in both disciplines. It’s not the first time Leder and Seely have merged minds on a project that requires both engineering skills and a historic preservation sensitivity: in the fall of 2006, the instructors had their students looking at possible reuses for the ca. 1920’s Academic Office Building Annex on MTU’s campus. As was the case with the Annex Building, the fire hall project presents some challenges, not the least of which is decay, misuse and neglect. “It’s pretty run down, and there are a lot of code violations to take care of before it can be opened for a public space,” said Kim Zehler, an undergraduate civil engineering student and one of two project managers in Leder’s class. The class was broken into two teams; Zehler’s team is focusing on the fire hall itself, while the second team, led by civil engineering classmate Dan Rowe, is looking at pedestrian access and parking issues for the structure. Zehler’s team plans to propose three options to the university and city for the building’s possible re-use: a showcase space for enterprise senior design projects, lounge space for off-campus students and office space for the Michigan Tech Enterprise Corporation SmartZone. But a lot has to be done before that can happen, she said. Asbestos insulation and peeling lead paint are concerns, and a narrow-tread stairway is the only access to the building’s second floor. “We’d have to put in an elevator, and there’s problems with that location-wise,” she said. The required elevator or stairway could necessitate either the demolition of a previous addition, or a wall that is currently shared with Auto Value Auto Parts. In addition, a wooden beam that supports the second floor is sagging significantly. Rowe’s team, meanwhile, is tackling pedestrian access to the building and the adjacent Carnegie Library, located on opposite corners of Huron Street and Montezuma Avenue. Working with Houghton City Manager Scott MacInnes, Rowe is leaning towards closing off Huron Street to motor traffic and putting in an 18-car parking deck at the intersection of Huron and Montezuma. “The idea is to link the cultural resources at the top of the hill with those in the lower downtown and then down to the waterfront,” Rowe said. “But we have to solve the access and parking problems for people to want to use these buildings.” Closing off Huron would also allow for pocket parks and gathering spots on Shelden Avenue, Rowe said, which is a need identified by the city, its visitors and its residents. In addition to talking to city officials, the students have also enlisted the help of Michigan Tech’s facilities management staff, researched documents at the MTU Archives and consulted with representatives from U.P. Engineers & Architects. “Right now, there’s no money available to rehab that building, so the students are just trying to provide the administration with some useful data,” Seely said. “The goal with this project is to provide a good, clear sense of the challenges and possibilities, which hopefully the administration can use in advancing the conservation efforts of the building. It’s something both MTU and the city want to see happen.” Jane Nordberg can be reached at jnordberg@mininggazette.com