The early history of 
Milan ’s fire department

In 1831, Milan ’s first settler, John Marvin, built his home on West Main Street .  It was a two-story log cabin.  He had a general store on the first floor, and his family lived on the second floor.

At that time, fire safety was pretty simple. 

If you smell fire, run!

In 1885, the community received its charter as a village, and it could therefore use taxes to pay for fire protection.  The village council lost no time, and quickly bought a few ladders and some leather buckets.

In 1890, the village bought a wooden wagon shop as a fire station.  It was a two-story wood structure, with the upper floor being used to build the wagons.  The village bought Burnham’s wagon shop for $500.

This fire protection showed its flaws in December 1891 when an entire block of W. Main Street burned to the ground, alongside the river.  The Ann Arbor Fire Department was generous enough to send some equipment to Milan , by train, but by the time it arrived by rail the ashes on W. Main had already cooled.

The equipment did seem handy, though, and since it was already in town, the Milan village council decided to buy a hand-operated fire engine and a hose cart from Ann Arbor .

Always looking for technology, the village bought a fire bell for the wooden station in 1893.

In February 1897, a new brick fire station was dedicated in Milan , on the same site as the wooden wagon shop had been.  The village paid $1,314.89 for the building, and the job was about $9 over the bid.  Meanwhile the village sold the old wooden structure for $30 and the lucky purchaser moved it elsewhere.

Later that same year, the village bought a 790-pound fire bell costing $84.  It didn’t last long-- during one of the fires, they banged the bell too hard and broke it.  The cracked bell is stored someplace in Milan .

The village fire fighters had to get along with wet fire hose until 1906, when the village had a hose drying tower built on the fire barn opposite the front doors.

The brick building was used as a council office, fire barn, library, and jail for many years.  Eventually a new fire station was built on Wabash just south of Main, where the Saline River had once been located.  The old brick building had given about a century of use when local history supporters came to the rescue and renovated the old building.  It now serves as the office for the Milan Area Chamber of Commerce and the City of Milan Downtown Development Authority .

Go to photo of the fire barn in 1912.