206 N. CHURTON ST. / ORANGE COUNTY FIRE STATION

07.02.2016 (G. Kueber)

Structure is in left background; photo excerpt from February 22, 1956 (photo by Roland Giduz, via UNC)

It was used as a Ray Motor Company (Ford) dealership showroom and garage in the 1950s and 1960s (until circa 1965).

The fire department (departments, actually; HFD and ORFD) moved to this structure in 1976. The neo-colonial/fauxlonial facade was added to the building by architect Archie Davis.

Late 1970s, view west (via www.orfd.net)

Interior, late 1970s (via www.orfd.net)

This one-story, hip-roofed, Colonial Revival-style fire station has a rear wing with a barrel-vault roof that appears to be a factory or garage that pre-dates the front section. The Flemish-bond building is three bays wide and single-pile with brick quoins at the corners, a projecting brick watertable, a modillion cornice, a pedimented projecting entrance bay centered on the façade, and a cupola on the ridgeline. The left (south) bay has an overhead garage door and the right (north) bay has a pair of twelve-over-twelve wood-sash windows with a wide cornice with modillions and fixed shutters. The nine-light-over-four-panel door has three-light- over-one-panel sidelights and a three-part transom. It has a classical surround with a broken swans-neck pediment. The front gable has a modillion cornice at the pediment and a small round window. The cupola has louvered vents on each elevation and an arched copper roof. The rear wing has large, multi-light fixed metal windows on the right elevation and two garage bays flanked by metal windows on the left elevation. The rear elevation features a single garage bay flanked by windows and aluminum siding in the gable. The building is typical of the Colonial Revival-style governmental buildings erected in Hillsborough in the 1980s. An original slate roof was removed from the building in 1994.