Standing inside 301 N. Broom St., you can't hear the clanging alarm bells or the "wheeoo!" of the siren, but there are clear signs this otherwise modern office building was once home to firefighters and the tools of their trade.

There's the station house doors, never again to be swung open in an emergency, and the original foot-thick sandstone walls in the basement. A hose tower — used to dry out hoses when they still had mildew-susceptible cotton jackets — graces the entryway to one of the office suites.

The rebirth of the old Fire Station No. 2, built in 1921, is not uncommon in Madison. Buildings once housing six others have been renovated for some other use, including apartments, office space, a theatre company and even a church.

In fact, in the last 100 years, only three of the city's old fire stations have been demolished, according to Mike Fuss, a retired Madison firefighter who was named the department's official historian in 1987.

The reasons for this are financial, structural, political and, in some cases, sentimental.

"I think it's because (old) fire stations are public buildings from an era where the public directed some attention to architectural detailing," said Tom Neujahr, a principal with Urban Land Interests, which led the renovation of 301 N. Broom. He calls Station No. 2 a "very, very well-crafted building."

Preserved and reused

Madison's not the only city where old fire stations have been preserved and reused.

Jim Sewell, senior preservation architect with the Wisconsin Historical Society, said that over the last 30 years or so, he's seen four stations around the state renovated as historical properties. He assisted in the rehabilitation of a handful of others.

Among them are stations in Jefferson and Brooklyn now used as office or commercial space and one in St. Nazianz that is being turned into a local history museum by the Manitowoc County village's historical society.

"They're probably not all that tough to rehab," Sewell said, pointing out that their first floors, where the vehicles were kept, are typically big, open spaces amenable to partitioning.

In Madison, city policy since at least the early 1990s has set out a detailed process for how old city properties, including fire stations, get disposed of.

Essentially, city departments have first crack at a piece of land or building that some other city department doesn't need anymore. If another public use can't be found, neighbors, the district's alderman and, to a lesser extent, the City Council have broad authority to decide who gets it and whether conditions must be met for its use.

Before the former station No. 7 at 5029 Raymond Road was sold, for example, neighbors and the city agreed that a condition of its sale was that the building not be used commercially, according to Don Marx, manager of the city's Office of Real Estate Services. Today it houses the Apostolic Faith Church.

Tax credits help

When fire stations are listed in the National Register of Historic Places or are eligible for listing, there are federal and state tax credits available to developers who buy and repurpose them, Sewell said. Together they can provide tax credits of up to a quarter of the cost of rehabbing the building.

Dan McCarty of TMB Development said tax credits were key to the firm's purchase and rehab of Station No. 4 at the corner of Dayton Street and Randall Avenue in the early 1980s. At the time, the building was eligible for listing on the National Register, Sewell said. It is now on it.

"The thing that puts it over the top. . .are the tax credits," McCarty said.

Although the property's current manager, JSM Properties, markets the apartments as "The Firehouse" on its Web site, McCarty said the building's historic value wasn't really a draw for tenants when he owned it.

"The truth is it was convenient," he said of the building, located near Camp Randall on the UW-Madison campus.

Sentimental attachment

A sentimental attachment to fire stations is alive and well for others, though.

Fuss bought one of the stations he worked at and converted it into his home and a firefighting museum.

The old station No. 8 at 407 North St. went on the block in 1990, and Fuss bought it for $41,000. He's made some renovations to carve out a more traditional bedroom and bathroom, for instance, but it's largely the same as it was when it closed nearly 20 years ago.

Fuss, 61, wanted to be a firefighter since he was a kid and admits, firefighting's "just been my life." He said others have told him, "Boy, I'd sure like to live in a fire station."

Sanjay Lama, who manages Shangri-La Collections at 125 State St., home to station No. 2 from 1857 to 1921, said groups stop by his storefront as part of a historical tour. He said he's speculated with others in the store about how the space might have been set up back in the day of horse-drawn pumper tanks.

"For our merchandise, (the building) works out nice," he said. "History is always important. It's a unique building on this block."