Willow Street

The Pocomoke City Volunteer Fire Company has known several locations over the years. Early Sanborn and Company fire insurance maps indicate that the steamer was first housed in a building on the property of one of Pocomoke’s mills near the river. The mill’s steam whistle was used to alert the town to a fire.The first official firehouse was a small building on Willow Street between Clarke Ave and Front Street. It housed the steamer in the front of the building and the town jail in the rear. The building is still standing (2024), although a second floor has been added over time.

The fire company soon outgrew the small engine house and moved in 1892 to a new larger firehouse on Willow Street between Clarke Ave and Second Street. Photos show the firehouse before the fire of 1922 with the Clapp and Jones steamer in front of the building.The firehouse was itself a victim of the massive fire of 1922. Its replacement was built in the same footprint, but with the era of motorized apparatus, it was quickly outgrown. In 1937, Chief Fred Henderson began a search for a suitable location to build a modern fire station. A piece of property located on the “south end town” was purchased, and the new firehouse was built on Fifth Street, between Market and Walnut Streets. With the fire and loss of records, it is hard to put an exact date on some things. Our fire company historian was confident that the photos below were taken between 1922 and 1939.

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Fifth Street (Originally)

The state-of-the-art 5^th St. Firehouse was dedicated in September 1939, featuring three large equipment bays, an elegant second-floor banquet hall, and a prominent tower for hanging hose to dry. With the additional space for equipment, the company was able to acquire a combination 500 GPM pumper and ladder truck in the same year.

Since then, the front door has been changed, and the equipment doors have been made taller for larger fire equipment, removing their old arches. In 1939, there were homes on both sides of the firehouse. Over the years, the property has been purchased, and the structures have been removed, allowing more parking space. As fire equipment continued to advance, a large outbuilding was constructed behind the primary firehouse to house additional equipment, including a tower ladder truck.

As time continued to march forward, eventually, it was determined that the 5th St. location could no longer serve the needs of a modern fire company, and in 2008, we moved to our current home at 1410 Market Street. With the move, the fire company took the cornerstone of the 5th St. building for future preservation. Inside was a time capsule, but upon opening, it was discovered that its contents were lost to the elements. 

Fifth Street (Currently)

In 2024, Davis Strategic Development finished a complete renovation of the 5th St. firehouse. The old firehouse has a fresh paint job and is full of new life. It is now home to nine luxurious apartments, has a commercial space on the first floor, and serves as the internet hub for Simple Fiber Internet. To completely restore the building to its original state, DSD requested the building cornerstone and inside bronze plaque from the department. The company agreed to loan the items to DSD to return the building to its original state.

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Market Street (Current Station)

For information about our current station, click HERE. 

For more information on the history of the PCVFC, visit our history page at http://pocomokefire.com/page/history.

Content courtesy of past PCVFC historians and current PCVFC historians Jerry Barbierri & Chip Choquette.