herr2ck: Engine No. 9

Photo of site from March 2026.

← Engine House No. 8 & Station 8 | Engine House No. 9 [demolished] & Station 25 | Engine House No. 10 & Station 10 →

Engine House No. 9 was one of Columbus’s Victorian “engine houses” in Harrison West. It was one that was demolished after it became obsolete, and its replacement was difficult to track down. Every time I hear this station's name, I can't help but think of the Deftones song "Engine No. 9".

Engine House No. 9 was located at 347 Buttles Avenue in the Harrison West neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. Its site is bordered by Buttles Avenue and houses to the north, Thurber Drive East to the south, commercial buildings to the east, and Delaware Avenue to the west.

History

Historic photo of the building. (Wikimedia)

There really isn’t much history on this one due to its short lifetime compared to the existing Engine Houses today. Built in 1892, it had a unique, asymmetrical Richardsonian Romanesque design with a large gable and vaulted windows on one end, and a cornice and two smaller dormers on the other. Its 70-foot tower was used to dry hoses, along with looking super cool.

Engine House No. 9 (mislabeled) on the 1901 Sanborn map. (Library of Congress)

The 1901 Sanborn map (which strangely labels it as Engine House No. 2 for some reason) states that the station was equipped with an Ahrens second-class steamer, a hose cart with 2,000 feet of hose, a supply wagon, ten firemen, and six horses. At that time, many of the surrounding lots were empty, though they would soon be built up with houses as of 1921.

The original Engine House No. 9 closed in 1961, and it was demolished a year later. As of 2009, the site was occupied by a suburban-style Giant Eagle store, which was probably built in the 1980s or 1990s. This store was demolished after 2022 and replaced with a contemporary apartment building.

Station 25. (Columbus Division of Fire)

Engine House No. 9’s replacement was Station 9, which was built in 1961 at 739 West 3rd Street across the Olentangy River. In 1982, Station 9 was consolidated with Station 1 downtown. The building became the Medical Training Center for a time before Station 25 moved in. They have renamed the fire station in honor of Henry “Hank” Gowdy, a fireman killed in the line of duty.