Originally named Marrickville Fire Station and located in Petersham, Stanmore Fire Station holds an important part of Sydney’s history by being the first Fire Station built for the Metropolitan Fire Brigade.
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| Stanmore Fire Station 1912. Image: Marrickville Image Library |
All fire stations were given a number as they were built, starting with Headquarters or No 1, but City of Sydney was not actually the first fire station built for the MFB, the honour going to the new Marrickville Fire Station.
It opened 29 May 1886 and was the first suburban and district fire station to be permanently manned. Subsequent extensions to the building and its staffing made the station the second largest in New South Wales (after Headquarters in Castlereagh St). The celebrations in 1986 marked 100 years of continual occupation and permanent manning of the station, a feat unrivalled in Australia at that time.
The Headquarters station was the first of the three original City brigades, and grew out of the Insurance Companies’ Brigade and its successor the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, originally housed in Bathurst St. In 1887 the brigade moved to the newly-constructed Headquarters station in Castlereagh St, the facade of which still remains today as part of the modern, expanded City of Sydney Fire Station.
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| Stanmore Fire Station 1936. Image: Marrickville Image Library |
The Stanmore Fire Brigade building was closed in 1991 and sold in 2000 to the Mastertouch Piano Roll Compnay who remained there until 2005. The Mastertouch Piano Roll Company had been established in 1919 in Sydney and manufactured and sold piano rolls until its closure on 1 July 2005.
Marrickville Heritage Society 