Zanesville Resident Repurposes Century-Old Fire Station

Recently it has become trendy to try to repurpose historic buildings rather than destroy them, and that’s exactly what one Zanesville resident is doing.

Ashley Moyer grew up in Zanesville before moving to New York City to study design. When she returned to her hometown she was looking for a new design studio and found one on the city’s north side in a century-old fire station. Moyer said when she first saw the building, she saw much more than just an abandoned structure.

“I looked at a lot of old buildings and this one really spoke to me when I walked in the door,” said Moyer. “It was full of workshop tools but I could see past that and I could see the beautiful ceiling and original wood brick floor and I just wanted to save it. I wanted to restore it back to its original glory.”

The fire station opened in 1910 on Forrest Avenue as one of the first Zanesville fire houses, and it was in operation until it closed its doors in 1978. Good Samaritan Hospital then purchased it and used it as a storage space.

The design studio to-be still has much of the original characteristics from when it was used as fire house including the firemen’s sleeping quarters and the shoot where hay was given to the horses that pulled the pre-automobile fire trucks. She plans to have her studios and living area in the vintage building and hopes to keep its historic charm.

“The main area where the truck would park and the horse carriage for that matter, it will stay the same. Anyone in Zanesville who would like to stop by and see it, they absolutely can,” said Moyer.

For Moyer the building represents a new home and work space. However for citizens like Michael Reed it means something else. He served as a Fire Chief for the Zanesville Fire Department in the 1970s and he was there on the station’s final day.

“They sent me with another guy because we only had two guys at the station,” remembered Reed about the final day the building served as a fire station. “But just for the heck of it I went over, pulled the doors open, and slide down the fire pole. Then the driver pulled the truck out and I closed the door and documented it in the book and that was it.”

Moyer hopes to have her studio open in a year. For more information you can visit her website at www.ashleymoyer.co