National Register #11000936
Fire House No. 1
El Dorado Street and Lincoln Way
Auburn
Built 1888

Fire House No. 1 has elements of both the Stick style and Queen Anne style of architecture.

Elements of the Stick style are the steeply pitched gabled roof, overhanging boxed eaves, and wooden wall cladding interrupted by patterns of horizontal and vertical boards.

Queen Anne elements include patterned shingles, asymmetric design elements, cutaway bay windows, decorative detailing, corbels along the cornice line, and corner brackets.

Fire House No. 1 was originally located on the upper end of Lincoln Way near railroad tracks. It was moved to its present location in 1973 by Rust Moving Company of Sacramento. The move took three days due to the side slope of Lincoln Way and the relocation of a Western Union cable.

Adapted from the NRHP nomination submitted in 2011.

Auburn Fire House No. 2 was also listed on the National Register of historic Places in 2011.

Buildings that Moved

It's not just that the people of the American West are restless, the buildings themselves sometimes pack up and move when - for one reason or another - the neighborhood no longer suits them or the neighbors no longer want them or opportunity waits down the road.

And when buildings remain in place, they are often searching for their identities.

Of the buildings and structures we have visited, the original Reno Arch holds the record for number of moves. It has been moved five times since it was built in 1926.

Jax Truckee Diner holds the distance title. The building moved from New Jersry to Pennsylvanis in 1948, then from Pennsylvania to Califonia in 1992.

Probably the most ambitious relocation occurred on July 4th 1904, when the Southern Pacific Railroad loaded most of the town of Wadsworth, Nevada, onto rail cars and transported the town thirty miles west to create a new town which became known as Sparks.