February 2026.
← Engine House No. 7 & Station 7 | Engine House No. 8 & Station 8 | Engine House No. 9 [demolished] & Station 9 →
Engine House No. 8 is one of Columbus’s Victorian-era fire stations on the east side. It shares a number with Firehouse 8 in New York City, the set of the well-known Ghostbusters movie. Unlike its NYC counterpart, however, Engine House No. 8 is in poorer condition and no longer in service.
Engine House No. 8 is located at 283 North 20th Street in the King-Lincoln Bronzeville neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by Mt. Vernon Avenue to the north, Franklin County Department of Job and Family Services to the south and west, and 20th Street and houses to the east. It is also east of the former site of East Market.
Station 8 is located at 1240 East Long Street, also in King-Lincoln Bronzeville. It is bordered by Author Place and Poindexter Village to the north, Long Street to the south, houses to the east, and Champion Avenue to the west.
History
Circa 1894 view of the fire station. (Wikimedia)
Engine House No. 8 was built on the east side of Columbus in 1888. A Romanesque Revival design, it featured a massive, eclectic central tower, much more elaborate than many other fire stations. It opened in conjunction with Engine House No. 7 in the University District. Though it is technically in King-Lincoln Bronzeville, its placement is very close to the Mt. Vernon neighborhood, which was the city’s major commercial area with Black-owned businesses.
The station in 1901, decorated to pay respects to the recently assassinated President William McKinley. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)
In July 1897, Engine House No. 8 was damaged by a fire that started in a nearby stable. Though firemen from the station and Engine House No. 11 were able to extinguish the fire, the stable and three houses nearby were destroyed, and some of Company 11’s men were injured.
Engine House No. 8 was also Columbus’s Black fire station beginning in 1935, when the fire department resumed hiring Black firefighters. This was the case until the department was desegregated circa 1948.
Mt. Vernon experienced a major downturn after it was severed from downtown via I-71, and many commercial buildings on Mt. Vernon Avenue were demolished in the 1970s. Engine House No. 8 clung to life, but its exuberant tower and rooftop ornamentation were removed around the same time. It finally closed in 1968. By 1979, it was deemed eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
1976 photo of Station 8. (Wikimedia)
Engine House No. 8’s replacement, Station 8, opened in 1968. It is southeast of the older station, right next to Poindexter Village.
Architect John W. Spencer designed an addition to Engine House No. 8 in 1982 that incorporated it into a supermarket for the neighborhood, taking some cues from the original building such as arches on 20th Street. However, the project had to first be approved by the historical society and federal government, which was greenlit after the architect planned to rebuild the tower and restore other original features. The addition itself was built, but the fire station was never restored.
The supermarket became the East Opportunity Center in 1992, while the fire station itself held a daycare called Children’s Firehouse. Engine House No. 8 and its attached building are still owned by the county and used by the Department of Job and Family Services.
Photos
East facade of the station today:
All of the ornamentation above the roofline has been chopped off. The only portions remaining are the hood molds, which are built into the walls of the building and cannot be removed, and the metal cornice.
Emasculated stub of the formerly massive tower:
Main entrance:
The large openings at ground level were formerly the garage doors, which have been replaced by windows. It seems that the stone border has either been cleaned or replaced entirely.
Despite the heavy alterations, the original grandeur is still visible in the stone details and corbelled brickwork.
Here, you can see the vaguely contextual arches of the addition:
I also got some pretty shoddy pictures of Station 8 while heading to my next destination that day. This photo is out of focus because my phone camera focused on the salt stains on my car window:
West facade--very utilitarian:
The building next door also had a nifty mural:
Okay, enough of that. Engine House No. 8 is in poor condition versus the other remaining stations, and the addition probably cost its National Register eligibility.
Sources:
https://cura.osu.edu/ghost-neighborhoods
https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/collection/ohio/id/20479
https://www.columbus.gov/Services/Public-Safety/Fire/Find-a-Fire-Station/Station-8
https://fire.fandom.com/wiki/Columbus_Division_of_Fire_(Ohio)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_House_No._8_(Columbus,_Ohio)
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