DESCRIPTION

Built in 1912 and with a construction cost of more than $60,000, Engine Co. No. 28 was the most expensive Los Angeles fire station of its time. Engine Co. No. 28 answered its first emergency call on July 23, 1913, and would respond to many such calls over the next five decades. The station's active service ended in 1969, and the building fell into disrepair over the coming years. In 1983, a 5-year preservation effort transformed Engine Co. No. 28 into its current blend of historic architecture and contemporary design. It is now home to a popular restaurant, Engine Co. No. 28, a theatre organization, and two renowned law firms.

Among the historic architecture preserved is the building's exterior brick facade. Unique features include street-level dual archways that once allowed fire trucks access to the building's two formidable metal doors, one of which is now permanently opened in the entryway. Spanning the second and third stories are two large Renaissance Revival-style window bays, and above these, three terra cotta cartouches portraying firemen's tools and the seal of the City of Los Angeles. Atop the original third story, twin towers crown a 14-foot parapet.Inside the restaurant, much of the original architecture survives -- the red brick flooring, 18-foot pressed tin ceilings, and near the entrance, the elegant mahogany cabinetry that once housed the emergency alarm system. What is now the building's restaurant was then the apparatus room where the station's two motor-driven fire trucks -- a Gorham-Seagrave pumping engine and a Seagrave chemical and hose wagon -- were parked. At the time of construction, horse-drawn vehicles were still in use as evidenced by the large (and ultimately unused) ceiling brackets intended for hanging reining equipment.