Two years in the making, the fire hall entered service on May 21, 1913, over 101 years ago as of today. It was built by John Burns & Son to replace the previous fire hall, which served the city from 1894. The location is up the hill, further from downtown than the old one. It was felt that because of much residential construction to the south of downtown, up the hill, this would be a more suitable location.
In May and June of 2013 the fire hall celebrated its 100th anniversary with several events: hosting the spring meeting of the Fire Chiefs' Association of BC, hosting an anniversary reception at their own museum, held a phenomenally successful open-house barbeque at the fire station and joined the Nelson Road Kings Car Club annual car show to co-host an antique fire truck display, which their twin 1944 Bickle-Seagrave engine and ladder trucks attended.
On Mar 14, 2013 the Nelson Star published an article about the fire hall and its upcoming centennial. The article, reprinted below, recounted snippets of the history of the Nelson Fire Service, begun in 1891 with a bucket brigade, and of the fire hall itself, built in 1912 and 1913.
Also a small bronze plaque was mounted at the entrance to the fire hall to commemorate the event.
For the restoration efforts that went into restoration of the building, the Fire Hall won the City of Nelson's "Heritage Building of the Year" award in 1984, making it the fifth recipient of the award, the first being awarded in 1980.