An historic undertaking: Moving crew transports Jacksonville fire station museum inch by inch

Bob Self, Florida Times-Union
·2 min read
A Hygema Foundation Repairs and House Movers crews carefully transport the historic Catherine Street Fire Station inch by inch down Bay Street after making it over the small bridge over Hogans Creek Saturday afternoon. The station was originally relocated to Metropolitan Park as a fire museum and now heads to the edge of the riverfront's redevelopment.

Saturday's undertaking of relocating the historic Catherine Street Fire Station as part of the city's riverfront redevelopment plans proved to be an elaborate inch-by-inch process down Bay Street.

After months of preparation, the 1902 vintage fire station in Jacksonville got off to a slower-than-planned start in the morning. It had been staged overnight on a bed of ground asphalt, but the weight of the brick building pressed the 152 tires supporting it into the asphalt, preventing the six powered-wheel sections to get traction. After digging out the tires, lifting each section individually, and putting traction plates underneath them, the start of the move was tried again, this time with success.

For the next six hours, the move inched along past the flyover near Gator Bowl and A. Philip Randolph boulevards to the Maxwell Coffee plant on Bay Street, just over the Hogans Creek Bridge where the roadbed was built up with truckloads of asphalt 4 feet deep in places to minimize the inclines of the existing roadbed. Plans continued into the night.

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Hygema Foundation Repairs and House Movers handled the move as part of the redevelopment of the riverfront and shipyards near the stadium complex.

The station was one of the three original fire stations built in the city after the 1901 fire destroyed much of downtown Jacksonville and originally had an African American company of firefighters. In 1994 it was relocated by Hygema from its original location at 12 Catherine St. where the Police Memorial Building had been built around it.

The historic Catherine Street Fire Station is inched down Bay Street from its former Metropolitan Park site to its new museum location Saturday.
The historic Catherine Street Fire Station is inched down Bay Street from its former Metropolitan Park site to its new museum location Saturday.

Since that move, it had been located near Metropolitan Park and became a fire museum. It is now back down Bay Street closer to downtown and at the western edge of the planned riverfront redevelopment that will include the USS Orleck Naval Museum and the new Museum of Science and History.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Moving crew transports Jacksonville fire station museum to new location