Stoughton Fire Department opens its renovated 1920s Freeman Street headquarters to the public Dec. 10

STOUGHTON, Mass. The Stoughton Fire Department will open its renovated headquarters at 30 Freeman St. to the public from 3 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 10, inviting residents into the brick station that was the town's main firehouse for close to a century.

Visitors can tour the building, meet members of the department and see the new headquarters, the department said. Light food and refreshments will be provided, and questions about the visit can go to the department's office at 781-344-3170.

The open house is a look at the second building in a fire station plan Stoughton voters approved in 2022, after debate over the department's buildings that reaches back to the 1960s.

What the building does now

Fire engines no longer roll out of Freeman Street, and the building now holds the department's command staff and administration, fire permits and other public services, and the town's public health nurses, who work from its mezzanine level. The town's plans also make it Stoughton's emergency operations center, and Stoughton Public Health scheduled an Oct. 15 flu clinic there.

Department offices at the headquarters are open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to noon Friday. A water main break in the Freeman Street building moved Station 1 to its new 25,145-square-foot home at 400 Prospect St. a few days ahead of schedule, the architects reported, and the new station was dedicated Oct. 26, 2024. Station 2 stays at 1550 Central St., and the department lists 66 career firefighters and 6,519 calls in 2025.

What it cost and who built it

The town signed a $6,875,000 construction contract in November 2024 with Page Building Construction of Stoughton, the lowest of eight general contractor bids received Nov. 1, 2024, when the highest came in at $9,385,435. Three change orders through July 2025 raised the contract to $7,051,043.86, for work that included a sink in the visiting nurses' office, a curtain wall in place of an overhead door, ledge removal, elevator work and repointing the masonry.

Dore and Whittier Architects of Newburyport designed the renovation, as it did the Prospect Street station. The contract gave the builder 365 days from the town's notice to proceed, with work expected to start Dec. 2, 2024, and the third change order listed substantial completion as December 2025.

How it was paid for

Because the building would serve mainly as an emergency operations center and public health site, the department says, the Freeman Street share of the project was to be paid with federal grants, particularly American Rescue Plan Act money from the COVID-19 pandemic. A March 2023 town presentation counted $6.4 million in ARPA money toward the two-building plan, on top of the $27.3 million the town approved, for $33.7 million in all.

The borrowing is split, the department says, with 35% paid each year from the town's operating budget and 65% through a debt exclusion added to tax bills. Town Meeting passed the project article as amended, 104-26 with two abstaining, and voters approved it 1,311 to 594 at a Feb. 1, 2022, election with 8.9% turnout, the town's presentation said. A Finance Committee vote on the article had failed 2-12-1, though the committee voted 15-0 to add a note that it supported the project concept but had concerns about the property, the funding methods and the bundling of several projects in one article.

Almost 100 years on Freeman Street

Town Meeting voted in 1925 to build a fire station and move the department out of Town Hall, and the Freeman Street station went into service in 1927, with two bays added in 1970. By the time the town planned its replacement, the department said the station had been designed and built for 1926 fire apparatus, had no facilities for women firefighters, did not meet ADA standards and could slow trucks heading out through the town center.

In 1997, after the death of Firefighter Victor Melendy, two studies pointed to the need for another station, and the Central Street station opened in 2001. More studies followed in 2007, 2010 and 2014 before the current plan took shape.

Keeping the old building as offices cost far less than rebuilding it as a modern firehouse, the department wrote, and putting headquarters in a single new station would have cost about $4 million more. Selling it, the department added, would have brought limited income, given up control over how the downtown site is used and likely meant tearing down part of the historic downtown.

The doors open at 3 p.m. Dec. 10, and in its invitation the department added, "We look forward to welcoming the community!"

Label: Reported by us.