Today in Wheeling History: May 2--Warwood Fire Station, a 1923 Classical Revival firehouse designed by Millard Fillmore Giesey, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (1996).
Warwood Fire Station No. 11 at 1609 Warwood Avenue embodies both the growth of the Warwood neighborhood and Wheeling’s early twentieth‑century investment in public safety. Constructed in 1923, the two‑story, rectangular brick building was designed in a restrained Classical Revival style by Wheeling architect Millard Fillmore Giesey and built by contractor John W. Ray. Its three‑bay façade, with twin apparatus doors flanking a central pedestrian entrance, is crowned by a limestone entablature inscribed “FIRE DEPARTMENT NO. 11,” visually asserting its civic purpose.
The station rose only a few years after Warwood—once largely farmland and truck gardens—was incorporated and then annexed to Wheeling in 1920, amid local resistance. City leaders commissioned the modern firehouse, at a reported cost between $15,445 and $30,000, to demonstrate their commitment to the annexed community. Dedication ceremonies in May 1923 drew thousands of spectators, reflecting Warwood’s rapid transformation into a working‑class industrial suburb served by streetcars and anchored by plants such as Warwood Tool.
For more than fifty years, Engine Company No. 11 responded to neighborhood emergencies from this strategically central site before moving to Richland Avenue in 1974. The decommissioned building later found new life when the Fitzsimmons family renovated it as law offices in 1994, preserving its historic character. Its listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996 formally recognized the station’s architectural significance and its role in Warwood’s political and civic history.
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/mr4c22tk) (https://tinyurl.com/525wtj9v); Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/2ntvw25x), West Virginia Culture Center (https://tinyurl.com/ysbymvus), The Historical Marker Database (https://tinyurl.com/yerz44ec), The Clio (https://tinyurl.com/427prd2h), City of Wheeling (https://tinyurl.com/yc7yzzk5), Find a Grave (https://tinyurl.com/ycypnm8f), Wheeling Heritage (https://tinyurl.com/2xadvjak), Weelunk (https://tinyurl.com/2fj5whsy)
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Wikimedia Commons, Google Maps, Find a Grave, National Park Service
Warwood Fire Station No. 11 at 1609 Warwood Avenue embodies both the growth of the Warwood neighborhood and Wheeling’s early twentieth‑century investment in public safety. Constructed in 1923, the two‑story, rectangular brick building was designed in a restrained Classical Revival style by Wheeling architect Millard Fillmore Giesey and built by contractor John W. Ray. Its three‑bay façade, with twin apparatus doors flanking a central pedestrian entrance, is crowned by a limestone entablature inscribed “FIRE DEPARTMENT NO. 11,” visually asserting its civic purpose.
The station rose only a few years after Warwood—once largely farmland and truck gardens—was incorporated and then annexed to Wheeling in 1920, amid local resistance. City leaders commissioned the modern firehouse, at a reported cost between $15,445 and $30,000, to demonstrate their commitment to the annexed community. Dedication ceremonies in May 1923 drew thousands of spectators, reflecting Warwood’s rapid transformation into a working‑class industrial suburb served by streetcars and anchored by plants such as Warwood Tool.
For more than fifty years, Engine Company No. 11 responded to neighborhood emergencies from this strategically central site before moving to Richland Avenue in 1974. The decommissioned building later found new life when the Fitzsimmons family renovated it as law offices in 1994, preserving its historic character. Its listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996 formally recognized the station’s architectural significance and its role in Warwood’s political and civic history.
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/mr4c22tk) (https://tinyurl.com/525wtj9v); Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/2ntvw25x), West Virginia Culture Center (https://tinyurl.com/ysbymvus), The Historical Marker Database (https://tinyurl.com/yerz44ec), The Clio (https://tinyurl.com/427prd2h), City of Wheeling (https://tinyurl.com/yc7yzzk5), Find a Grave (https://tinyurl.com/ycypnm8f), Wheeling Heritage (https://tinyurl.com/2xadvjak), Weelunk (https://tinyurl.com/2fj5whsy)
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Wikimedia Commons, Google Maps, Find a Grave, National Park Service
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