If the walls of Bay City’s old Fire Station No. 3 could talk, they’d probably tell tales of daring rescues and community spirit.
Thanks to a group of volunteers, those walls are getting the chance to tell their stories. For more than a year, volunteers have been working to create a museum and preserve the historical building at 115 Washington Ave. near the intersection of Washington Street and Columbus Avenue in Downtown Bay City.
The Downtown Bay City building is just one part of the
Antique Toy & Firehouse Museum, based at 3456 Patterson Road.
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Photo courtesy of the Antique Toy and Firehouse MuseumFrom 1890 to 1916, Fire Station No. 3 served the community from its Washington Avenue location. Now, the building is being remodeled into a museum.Dale Bash, owner of
Dobson Industrial and one of the volunteers committed to bringing the historical firehouse back to life, says volunteers hope to open both museum buildings in May.
Between now and then, there’s a lot of work to do.
The Fire Station No. 3 building was taken out of use as a fire station over a century ago. Since then, it’s seen a number of uses. The exterior took a beating while the inside was cut up and re-arranged for different occupants.
Recently, the Antique Toy & Firehouse Museum acquired the building and set about turning it into a museum.
In 2024, the first phase of work at the 115 Washington Ave. building was completed. In Phase One, crews fixed up the facade to return the building to its original appearance. They also weatherproofed the building, stabilized the structure, and tried to make the first floor as accessible as possible.
“Making it look like it was in 1890, addressing the windows and the doors and all of that, was Phase One,” says Bash.
Phase Two, happening right now, is adding an emergency steel stairway at the back of the building and making more exterior upgrades on the third floor. In the process, the third floor will be renovated to include meeting space. “The third floor will be the most popular floor for foundations,” Bash says.
Workers also are replacing doors in the back of the museum.
Phase Three, which begins soon, calls for renovations on the second floor.
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Ashley BrownThe Antique Toy & Firehouse Museum was founded in 2000 with the mission of preserving fire service memorabilia for future generations.“The second floor has the original windows, but there were two offices there, one for a fire chief and assistant fire chief, and the rest of the room was open as a bunkhouse for the firemen,” Bash says.
He says the offices will be cleaned up and painted. The open area where firemen used to sleep will be turned into what he calls a “Four Point Room.”
“The Four Point Room is education,” he says.
The first point is the history of fires and firefighting in the region. The second point is fire safety. Local fire departments from Bay, Midland, and Saginaw counties will be invited to teach fire safety to adults or schools on field trips.
The third and fourth points are space for two of the city’s other museums.
“The
USS Edson people will come in and talk about the Edson out there on the river, and the
Saginaw Marine Historical Society will put out artifacts and talk about Saginaw marine history with the ships being built and the lighthouse and all the things that are in the tri-county community for the history,” he says.
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Ashley BrownThe main museum is located on Patterson Road now, but an old firehouse near Downtown Bay City is being renovated now and expected to open in the spring.While there will be exhibits throughout the museum, Bash says the second floor will have a lot to offer.
“What's really exciting to me is that each group represents a different facet of (our history) and we will let them store artifacts up there so when they have a kids' classroom or adults they will have actual artifacts.”
Later, when the first three phases are complete, the group hopes to add an elevator with access to the third floor and accessible restrooms.
Even after work on the building wraps up, the exhibits will continue to be refreshed.
The initial plan is for the third floor will house fire apparatus and some of the toys. On the second floor, visitors will discover fire support equipment. The first floor will house fire trucks and hoses among other exhibits.
Along with the building renovation, Bash says they are also working to restore a 1959 Valley Fire Truck that was manufactured here in Bay City.
“Right now we’re targeted to be roadworthy by the
St. Patrick’s Day Parade,” he says.
Valley Fire Truck Company was started by a local Jeep Willy’s dealer, Paul Glocksine, who converted one of his trucks into a fire apparatus. The company was located on River Road, says Bash.
The Willy’s is one of 60 fire apparatus owned by the museum, along with 16,000 antique toys housed at the Patterson Road location. Bash says both museum locations will open May 1, even as the renovations continue.
The entire project is estimated to cost $2.5 million, but Bash says they continue to receive grants and private donations.
For more information or to schedule a tour visit the newly updated website.