The Tulsa Fire Museum, located in the historic Fire Alarm Building at 1010 E. 8th St., is currently open only on select open house dates. The museum is still in the process of raising funds to complete its vision so that they can be open on a regular basis. But thankfully, we saw the information about their monthly open house this past Sunday and were able to make it!
The Historic Fire Alarm Building
The museum is located in a beautiful art deco building that was originally built in the early 1930s as a fire alarm building. Essentially, it was explained to us, an emergency call center. There’s a photo near the entrance that shows what it looked like at the time.
The building was actually in use as a fire alarm center until the early 1980s. After remaining vacant for over a decade, the American Lung Association took it over, renovating it to more what it is like today. We also saw some pictures of how it looked before the ALA took it over – the basement was totally unfinished, with dirt floors; now, this is where they store the majority of the Fire Museum artifacts.
The ALA didn’t operate in the building for very long. Eventually, it was purchased by a private person/entity, who now leases it to the Tulsa Fire Museum at a very reasonable rate.
Learn more about the history of the Fire Alarm Building at tulsafiremuseum.org/about
The Collection
If you’re able to attend an open house, a volunteer should be on-hand to tell you about the museum’s collection. This is definitely helpful, as, because the museum is still a work in progress, a lot of it isn’t labeled…