A postcard image from early-1909 showing the Brookline Engine House. The building was still under construction at the time and would not be officially dedicated and staffed until June of 1911.

The long process began on July 1, 1908, seven months after Brookline was annexed into the City of Pittsburgh. Thomas W. Boyd and Company was awarded the construction contract from the Board of Public Safety at a cost of $16,000.

By February 6, 1909 the building was nearing completion and touted in the Pittsburgh Press as one of the "neatest, most attractive and most modern of the kind in the country. Four months later, in June 1909, Freehold Real Estate announced that the engine house would be opened the following month.

Brookline Boulevard in February 1909 showing Dooley's market, built in 1907, and the new firehouse.

For some reason, it wasn't until March 18, 1910, that the Brookline engine house was again in the news. On that date the City Budget Director John Morin announced that several new stations, including Brookline, were finally getting the apparatus, equipment and crews necessary to become operational. In Brookline, this equipment was soon to be installed.

Months later, on December, 28, 1910, the Pittsburgh Daily Post reported that the home of S.C. Addis, at Edgebrook and Bellaire Avenues, was destroyed by fire. Residents were enraged that the Brookline firehouse, which had been sitting idle for almost two years, was still not operational.

It took another six months for the city to bring the firehouse to operational status. Finally, on June 23, 1911, Brookline's Engine House #57 was dedicated. Brookline residents were overwhelmed with joy and breathed a sigh of relief that their homes and property were now under the watchful care of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire's latest neighborhood firehouse.

It may have taken an abnormally long time for the city to put public safety first here in Brookline. However, once it did our residents have received over 106 years of dedicated service from some of the finest firefighting and life-saving crews in the City of Pittsburgh.

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* Photos provided by Tom Castrodale - Information by Doug and Mike Brendel *