Happy valentine’s day and happy birthday to Fire Station 9, which opened at 4465 Six Forks Road on February 14, 1963.
Engine 9, previously the second engine at Station 1, was placed in service with a 1951 American LaFrance pumper. Tanker 9 was placed in service the same day with a 1960 GMC tanker, and operated until 1974. Twelve men manned the station. The $63,000 station was located in the North Hills neighborhood.
Across the street was the old Six Forks Road Volunteer Fire Department, which protected those previously unincorporated areas just outside the city limits on the north side. (They later moved about a mile north, to a new station that’s presently EMS Station 3, and later to their final location on Lynn Road at Lead Mine Road.)
Station 9 housed a rescue company from 1974 to 1978, a Battalion Chief from 1978 to 2001, a Division Chief from 2001 to 2005, and a fire investigation unit from 2000 to 2012. It also housed a mini-pumper between 1987 and 2007.
Today it’s nestled among the bustling and commercially exploding area of “midtown Raleigh,” where the old North Hills Mall once anchored the area. It opened in 1960 and was converted to an enclosed mall in 1967. It was both the first enclosed mall in Raleigh and the first two-story, air-conditioned indoor mall between DC and Atlanta.
The mall closed in 2003 and was largely demolished, except for the JCPenny and its existing parking deck. An mixed-use development took its place, including the popular open-air shopping center. And the area hasn’t stopped growing since!
Photo credits: top and bottom left, News & Observer. Bottom right, Mike Legeros.
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