Nomination Form
With its demi-octagonal projections, Steamer Company Number 5 is an architectural work ingeniously adapted to an irregular site. It was built in 1883 to continue the fire-fighting and police station functions begun in 1849 in a earlier building on this site in the Jackson Ward neighborhood. The polygonal Italianate structure is the most conspicuous and best-preserved of Richmond’s early firehouses. The building’s configuration and fabric illustrate the transition from horse-drawn to motorized equipment. Its name also suggests a certain archaic quality, referring to the days when steam was required to produce water pressure in vehicles. A fire-fighting tradition of 119 years at this site was ended in 1968 when a new firehouse was built nearby. The building was sold into private ownership in 1976 and has since been developed as the Virginia Fire and Police Museum.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia
