The stations: the roster, 1887 to the present eleven

1887–2026 · HOUSES BUILT, MOVED, CLOSED, AND KEPT

The first houses: The paid department's first building for Company No. 1 stood on the north side of LaSalle Avenue west of Michigan Street, where the downtown South Shore station later stood. The department's headquarters moved in 1902 to the new Central Fire Station at the southeast corner of Wayne and St. Joseph streets — headquarters address 202–204–206 East Wayne Street. The Tribune's account of the move is exact: Hose Company No. 1 made the transfer on 31 July 1902 and the central companies the day before, centralizing the apparatus in one building that housed twenty-one men and nine horses, with a truck, a chemical, the chief's and assistant chief's wagons and the reserve truck and hose wagon. The 1907 roster, as Howard prints it, ran: Chief Wilfird Grant and Assistant Chief William Smith at the Central Fire Station; Truck Company No. 1 (Capt. John Haney), Chemical Engine No. 1 (Capt. Irving Sibrel) and Hose Company No. 1 (Capt. Adam Seifert) at Central; Hose Company No. 2 on West Sample Street (Capt. Henry Entzion); No. 3 on North Hill Street (Capt. John Stoney); No. 4 on West Thomas Street (Capt. Camile De Vleeschouwer); No. 5 on East Sample Street (Capt. August Hoglund); No. 6 at Portage Avenue and Lindsey Street (Capt. Frank Strickler); No. 7 at South Bend and Notre Dame Avenues (Capt. Oscar Stallard); No. 8 at Washington and Olive Streets (Capt. John Wentland); with Harry E. Coil as department secretary and Edward Koehler as its lineman.

The historic roster: The station history compiled with the department's help carries the houses forward. Station 3 dates to 1887 on North Hill Street and went out of service in 1953. The building on West Thomas Street — built, the station history says, in 1894 as Station 2, remodeled in 1922 and renamed Station 4, housing an engine company and a snorkel company — closed in 1975; Howard's 1907 roster already places Hose Company No. 4 on West Thomas Street and No. 2 on West Sample Street, and the two accounts stand as printed. Station 2's original house stood at 401 West Sample Street, at Sample and Lafayette, where the St. Joseph County Jail now stands; its 1930s successor at 817 South Lafayette was renovated in 1937. Station 5 was built in 1895 at 701 East Sample Street, was removed when the Sample and Eddy bridge was built, and was rebuilt on Lincolnway East; that Lincolnway East house served as Station 5 until 1967 and, back in service as Station 12, from 1968 to 1978.

Station 6 opened in 1897 on North Portage Avenue and was decommissioned in 1968. Station 7 opened in 1904 on North Notre Dame Avenue and was decommissioned in 1968. Station 8 stood on South Olive Street. Station 9 opened in 1926 on Mishawaka Avenue — at 2520 East Mishawaka Avenue, where it served until 2019, when the house was sold and the company moved to its present quarters — and Station 10 opened in 1908 at 1820 South Michigan Street, was first decommissioned in 1945, reopened in 1950 and served until 1971. Station 11 opened in 1930 on Lincolnway West and was decommissioned in 1975. Station 5's present house at 2221 Prairie Avenue replaced the 1954 building on the same ground in 2013–14, the site chosen, Chief Steve Cox's 2013 annual report records, after analysis of fire and EMS run volume in Engine 5's response district showed the location best suited among the property available.

The present eleven: The city's fire stations page, last updated 8 May 2025, lists the department as comprised of eleven fire stations. Station 1, at 1222 South Michigan Street, is the headquarters house: Engine 1, Truck 1, Rescue 1, Battalion 102, Paramedic 1660, Medic 1, Safety 116, and the Tactical Rescue Unit, Hazardous Materials Unit and SCUBA Unit. Station 2, at 402 Charles Martin Sr. Drive: Engine 2, Medic 2, Battalion 103, Boat 2 and Paramedic 1662. Station 3 is at 1805 McKinley Avenue; Station 4 at 220 North Olive Street; Station 5 at 2221 Prairie Avenue; Station 6 at 4302 West Western Avenue; Station 7 at 1616 Portage Avenue; Station 8 at 2402 Twyckenham Drive, with Engine 8 and Paramedic 1661; Station 9 at 2108 East Mishawaka Avenue, with Engine 9, Medic 9 and Boat 9; Station 10 at 5303 York Road, with Engine 10, Medic 5 and Medic 10; and Station 11 at 3505 North Bendix Drive, with Engine 11 and Medic 11. The Luther J. Taylor Fire Training Center stands at 710 East Sample Street, named for the chief of 1986–2007 whose tenure the Public Servants section carries.

Sources:

1. South Bend Tribune summary, 4 June 1907, quoted in Howard (1907) — the 1902 central station and the moves of 30–31 July 1902.
2. Timothy E. Howard, A History of St. Joseph County, Indiana (1907), vol. 1 — the department's organization and station locations for 1907, with the company captains.
3. South Bend Fire Department historic stations page (monon.org), compiled with the department's assistance and from the St. Joseph County Public Library's local history collections — the houses' openings, moves, renamings and closings, 1887–1978.
4. City of South Bend, South Bend Fire Stations page (southbendin.gov, last updated 8 May 2025) — the present eleven stations, addresses and apparatus.
5. South Bend Fire Department, 2013 Annual Report (Chief Stephen Cox, memorandum of 22 April 2014, city document archive) — the Engine 5 district analysis behind Station 5's rebuilding on its Prairie Avenue ground.