Mt. Jackson Fire Station

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In 1931 a group of concerned residents banded together to form the Mt. Jackson Fire Company. Their first fire engine was built on a 1931 Packard touring car chassis by company members. It was stored in a shed owned by Rufus “Boots” Lindamood in the center of town. The initial drivers were Alfred Stickley and Cecil Lindamood.

Four years after the founding, local residents Earl Robinson and Charles H. Phillips started a petition to raise the funds for a new fire station. Within a year, they had raised enough money to start work. Harold Shannon, a local resident, had his design for the station selected after a contest was held.
The building, located in downtown Mt. Jackson, had twin stair towers in the front and was one of the more elegant in Shenandoah County at the time. Its design, with apparatus space on the first floor, and a social hall on the second was typical of fire departments during that period.

The new Mt. Jackson fire station opened in 1936. The newly formed Ladies Auxiliary, a group of women who supported fire department activities, funded completion of the second floor. New engines were purchased in 1939 and in 1947. The latter of these units was one of the first custom built fire trucks in Shenandoah County.

An addition was completed in 1952. This project saw the construction of a kitchen and meeting room. By 1955 the department was operating three pieces of emergency apparatus from this location.

In the early 1990s the department realized it had outgrown this station. After years of negotiating and fundraising, they were able to move to the former Triplett School building, donated to them by Shenandoah County, in 1995. Today the former fire station is a business and the second floor holds apartments.