Arlington Seeks Historical Artifacts As Fire Station 8 Nears Opening

ARLINGTON, VA — The Arlington County Fire Department expects its staff will be able to move into the new Fire Station No. 8 on Langston Boulevard before the end of 2023, followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony in April 2024.

County officials are inviting community members to donate historical artifacts and items to be placed inside a display case in the lobby of the new fire station to honor the history and legacy of the Hall's Hill/High View Park Volunteer Fire Department and Fire Station No. 8.

Once the fire equipment is moved into the new fire station later this year, Arlington will still need to conduct phase two of the Fire Station No. 8 building process, which will include dismantling the temporary fire house building, installing gasoline and diesel tanks at the site, and building a parking lot, county officials said Wednesday night.

The Fire Station No. 8 construction team held a public meeting on Wednesday at the Langston-Brown Community Center across the street from the fire station to give the community an update on the project's progress.

The new four-bay Fire Station No. 8 will be Arlington’s first fire station to incorporate many of the county's new sustainability goals, including an energy efficient building envelope, a green vegetated roof, and solar panels to reduce the building's commercial energy demand.

Upon completion, an historical exhibit will be displayed in the lobby to convey the personal contributions, stories, and human connections of the members of Fire Station No. 8 from its origins in 1918 through the present day.

At the meeting, a member of the public asked county officials if the new fire station would be big enough to house equipment able to deal with fires in buildings of up to 12 to 15 stories envisioned in the county's Plan Langston Boulevard, which is currently in its community input phase. Fire officials said the new fire station would be able to handle the equipment.

A resident of the Hall's Hill community said at the meeting that she and her neighbors would oppose the construction of any buildings of that height along the section of Langston Boulevard that runs adjacent to Hall's Hill. The community rallied to keep the fire station in the Hall's Hill area and would "fight to the end" to keep out tall buildings from their section of Langston Boulevard, she said.

In 2015, the county proposed a plan to move the fire station from Langston Boulevard to a county-owned site near Marymount University on Old Dominion Drive. At the time, the Arlington County Fire Department said it wanted to relocate Fire Station 8 further north in order to achieve their goal of four-to-six-minute response times throughout the county.

But residents of Hall’s Hill, a historically African American community, and other community members protested the planned move of the fire station just over a half-mile north and were successful in convincing the county to keep the new fire station at the location on Langston Boulevard.

In 1918, a group of volunteer African American firefighters formed in the Hall’s Hill area, a neighborhood that began as home to many freed slaves but was kept separate by white leaders from neighboring communities. In 1926, the Hall’s Hill Volunteer Fire Department bought its first motor-driven fire engine with funds raised through door-to-door canvassing and pledged donations.

Station 8’s first three Arlington County-paid firefighters arrived in 1951 to be followed by a fourth later in the year. A fifth was added in 1952, a sixth in 1953 and two more in 1954. All the firefighters were African American.

In 1962, the Arlington County Fire Department began to integrate its fire stations, including Station 8. The new Station 8 at 4845 Lee Highway opened in 1963, with two pumpers and a new 100-foot aerial ladder truck. The new fire station, scheduled for its ribbon-cutting next April, will be replacing the station that opened in 1963.

Residents who are interested in donating historical artifacts related to the history of Fire Station No. 8 can contact Maire Bourque, project manager for the fire station replacement project, at mbourque@arlingtonva.us for more information.

RELATED: Demolition Of Arlington Fire Station To Begin In Early May