The San Francisco call., 1896-11-15
SHIFTED THE OLD
TO ERECT A new
Making Room for a Modern
Building on Market
Street.
An Elegant Three-Story Truck
house for the Fire De-
partment.
TO BE BUILT IN NINETY DAYS.
The Landmark Constructed in 1860
Kept Company With Scrub Oak
and Sand Dunes.

Truckhouse 5, which has stood on the
south side of Market street, between
Tenth and Eleventh, since 1863, has been
moved from the place where it stood for
the past twenty-seven years to the vacant
lot on the east Immediately adjoining.
Here it will be permitted to remain for
the next 100 days. In it the hook and
ladder and chemical engine. with the men
and horses attached thereto. will be
housed until the new modern building
takes its place.
The front elevation of the building is
produced in to-day's CALL. ano it will when
finished be one of the best houses of its
kind in the City belonging to the Fire De-
partment.
1t will be three stories in height from
the level of the sidewalk, with a ten-foot
basement for the storage of fuel and horse
feed ana such other articles as may be
necessary for the use of the department.
The front will be of iron, with pressed
brick and terra-cotta facings.
The ground floor will be used for the
housing of the hook and ladder truck and
the chemical engine, with the horses at
tached thereto, with ample room for an
engine should one be deemed important
for that station.
The second floor will be used as
''bunk'' quarter, or sleeping apartment,
for the men, with a large assem- Dly-room,
where the daily papers will be supplied,
as also billiard table, bathroom. etc.
The top floor will be exclusively used as
drillroom. where the men will be put
through their exercises as frequently as it
may be deemed necessary in order to make
them proficient.
The entire size of the building will give
a thirty-foot frontage on Market street,
with a depth of 124 feet. Electric lights
and the most modern system of heating
the entire building will be introduced.
The architect, Z. R. Wilson, has paid par
ticular attention to all the necessary Ge-
tails for light and fresh air in his plans,
and with the contractor, Thomas Butler,
remains the work OF carrying out those
plans.
The contract price for the building is
| SIG, 600, which sum is considered to leave
but a small margin for profits when the
| ing specifications. Builder Butler has
ninety working days in which to finish his
| contract.
| At the time the old wooden truckhouse
was built in 1869 the surrounding territory
was uninhabited and it was lonely build
| ing by ITSELF having the old San Jose
f, Railroad depot as one of its landmarks,
| with Hayes Park pavilion as another 1t
then had fourteen square miles of terri
! tory to cover for its route, going as far as
| the county line from the Potrero to North
| Beach. Now four square miles mbrace
| its boundary of responsibility for calls,
| unless a general alarm should be turned in.
| The scrub oak and sand dunes, together
with Yerba Buena Cemetery, the present
| site of the City Hall-have all been re-
moved, and a commercial thoroughfare
| has taken their places since the old wooden
truckhouse with it's alarm bell was built
and put in place on the site from which it
has just been shifted to make room for its
successor.