herr2ck: Dirty Dozen

February 2026.

← Engine House No. 11 & Station 11 | Engine House No. 12 & Station 12 | Engine House No. 13 [demolished] & Station 13 →

Engine House No. 12 is one of Columbus’s Victorian-era “engine houses.” It has since been adaptively reused as a German restaurant and beer garden. In my opinion, it is one of the most interesting designs of these stations architecturally.

Engine House No. 12 is located at 734 Oak Street in the Olde Towne East neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by Agate Alley and the W. H. Jones House to the north, Oak Street to the south, houses to the east, and a parking lot and Parsons Avenue to the west.

Station 12 is located at 3200 Sullivant Avenue in the Hilltop neighborhood of Columbus. It is bordered by houses to the north, Sullivant Avenue to the south, Brinker Avenue to the east, and a church to the west.

History

As Columbus grew rapidly in the late 19th century, several fire stations were built to service the population that was settling outside of downtown. The city built more water lines away from downtown for the new residents, which resulted in a drop in water pressure, as the pumps at the time struggled to maintain it at greater distances. In the 1880s, the fire department relied on hose reels, an early type of fire engine that was simply a cart with a spool that held a hose, which was then attached to a fire hydrant and used to extinguish the fire. With the poor water pressure further away from the center of Columbus, the city had to reinvest in steam-powered pumping engines to compensate. However, there were two issues--due to maintenance expenses, the city put their two 1870s-vintage pumping engines in their reserves; and the existing fire stations were built for the smaller hose reels, meaning they could not fit the larger pumping engines. As a result, replacement fire stations had to be constructed to house them.

1894 photo of Chemical House No. 1. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

Engine House No. 12 has one of the best-documented and most interesting histories of a Columbus fire station. The first station on the site went by various names, such as the Oak Street Engine House, Hose House 5, and Chemical House No. 1. It was built in 1880 and appeared to be an Italianate design. Beginning in 1892, the station was staffed by an entirely Black contingent of firemen. However, the city ultimately relocated them to a new station in Hilltop in 1897, which was the predecessor of Engine House No. 17.

Proposed floor plans for the fire station. (Wikimedia)

The present Engine House No. 12 was built from 1896 to 1897, and it is an example of Romanesque Revival architecture. It has only two garage doors (versus the larger stations built with three), but it shares the tall hose tower and decorative brickwork with other fire stations of the same age. After the Black chemical engine staff moved to the Hilltop, the fire department resumed hiring white firemen for the newly built station.

Historic photo of Engine House No. 12 with its horse-drawn engines. (Braun Donnell)

Engine House No. 12 operated until the early 1950s, and in 1952, it became the Columbus Recreation & Parks Department’s Arts and Crafts Center. The city held art classes for the community inside the fire station until 1978, when they were moved to the newly-opened Cultural Arts Center downtown. Although Engine House No. 12 has no individual historic designation, it was listed as part of the Near East Side District in 1978 as well.

Station 12 today. (Columbus Division of Fire)

Engine House No. 12’s replacement, Station 12, opened in the Hilltop in 1956. It is a Modern design and is commemoratively named the Lieutenant Frank D. Grashel Fire Station, although it is nicknamed the “Dirty Dozen” by its firefighters.

The vacant Engine House No. 12 in the 1980s. (Braun Donnell)

After the city ceased its use of Engine House No. 12, it remained vacant while various developers tried to figure out a new use for the building. The first attempt was a New Orleans-themed restaurant called “Fat Tuesday” in 1980. In 1985, another developer purchased the building and attempted to convert it into mixed-use restaurant and office space, but the Olde Towne East Association and Near East Area Commission opposed these plans due to a lack of parking, and the Columbus Development Commission rejected them. In the end, the station was renovated into the Columbus Music Hall in 1987, a performance space for jazz musicians.

The Columbus Music Hall closed in 2008 due to low income from the performances and the former station’s lack of a kitchen. It remained vacant until 2017, when it was purchased by another developer and converted to a restaurant. The current tenant, Gemut Biergarten, opened in August 2019.

Photos

An oblique view of the station as it appears today:

Here is the Oak Street facade:

Visually, its closest match is Engine House No. 14, but all these Romanesque Revival firehouses share a basic DNA to them. The vaulted windows, decorative brickwork, and raised parapet at the center are all features seen on almost every other “engine house.”

One of the most interesting features about Engine House No. 12 is that it still has its original hinged wooden doors. Every other station had these replaced with conventional folding garage doors at some point, and Engine House No. 1/16’s similar doors are recreations of the originals.

Hidden behind the two open doors in the middle is a datestone with the names of the mayor, public safety commissioner, and fire chief. Engine House No. 11 has an identical one, and I have a better picture of it since it was in plain view.

I liked the inscriptions above each door opening, too. At left is Hose No. 12:

…and at right is Engine No. 12:

I think this one has some of the best brickwork, though. Along with the typical corbelling beneath the roofline, it has four piers that lead to pinnacles on the parapet and articulate the facade, as well as two recessed panels above the end bays:

The vaulted windows also have a band of stone trim, which is relatively uncommon on these designs.

This sign is original, but it is missing the S:

Columbus’s vernacular architecture gets its brickwork right, that’s for sure. Fire stations, power plants, breweries, streetcar barns…they all have this lovely plasticity to their facades.

The west facade is very simple and has a receding parapet, but its highlight is the tall hose tower:

It serves as a secondary entrance today and certainly emphasizes that purpose, but as it was built this side would have likely faced an alley or another building.

Remember, this top isn’t original, and there would have been a taller “belfry” extending further upward. Every single Victorian station was built with one and later had it removed (possibly in 1933 when Engine House No. 11 lost its own), and the only surviving example is on Engine House No. 1/16, which is a restoration.

The tower is about halfway embedded into the wall of the fire station. Compared to other hose towers I’ve seen online or visited (I recently went to Racine, Wisconsin and saw three of their historic stations), these are way more proportional to the size of the main building, but there’s also something fun about a massively out-of-scale hose tower.