From Phil Stenholm:
Another installment in our series on the History of the Evanston Fire Department.
GOLF, ANYONE?
Even with budget constraints that prevented full modernization as recommended by the NBFU in 1935, the Evanston Fire Department of the 1930s was highly respected. This reputation led the Village of Golf—a small, affluent community located just west of Golf Road, near the Glen View Club and Harms Woods, three miles west of Evanston’s city limits—to contract with the EFD for fire protection in 1937.
Under the agreement, Evanston would send one engine company (typically Engine Co. 3), one truck company (usually Truck Co. 2), and a chief officer to any fire call from the Village of Golf. Additional units would respond if necessary.
The cost to the Village of Golf was a flat annual fee, regardless of how often or how severe the fires were. This arrangement continued until the creation of the Glenview Rural Fire Department (later known as the Glenbrook Fire Protection District) after World War II.
At the time, the two suburban fire departments surrounding the Village of Golf—Morton Grove and Glenview—were mostly volunteer, with limited equipment and no ladder trucks. Despite being five miles away and taking about 12–15 minutes to reach, the EFD could provide top-tier fire apparatus and well-trained personnel immediately upon arrival.
The EFD also had a long-standing contract with the Village of Niles Center (now Skokie), dating back to the 1920s, to respond to alarms in College Hill. This area, located in the northeast corner of Niles Center, was part of a larger tract of land Evanston had planned to annex to accommodate its growing immigrant and African-American population.
However, Niles Center unexpectedly annexed the land in the 1920s, leading to tension and threats of legal action from Evanston. The area remained sparsely populated until after World War II, with many streets built in the 1920s but few homes constructed due to the Great Depression and later the war.
College Hill was bordered by Crawford Avenue to the west, Greenleaf Street to the south, and the City of Evanston to the north and east. By 1927, when EFD Fire Station #4 was completed, three of Evanston’s four stations were closer to College Hill than the volunteer Niles Center Fire Department, whose station was located at 8031 Floral Avenue.
This is why the NBFU recommended in its 1935 report that a fifth EFD station be built near Grant and Central Park to better serve College Hill.
Thanks to its aggressive annexation policy in the 1920s, Evanston’s boundaries extended far beyond its central core. However, Niles Center’s population and commercial activity remained centered around the Oakton and Lincoln intersection, where Niles Township High School (later Niles East) was built in 1938 to serve students living nearby.
By the 1930s, College Hill had a few scattered homes, some businesses along Dempster Street, Church Street, and East Prairie Road, and the EFD continued responding to alarms there until January 1949, when Skokie opened its east-side fire station at 8340 Hamlin Avenue, finally providing local coverage.
Another suburban department under contract to respond outside its own boundaries in the 1930s was the Winnetka Fire Department, which served Kenilworth, Northfield, and unincorporated areas of New Trier Township, including the exclusive Woodley Road neighborhood and parts of Sheridan Road.
FRONT-LINE APPARATUS OF OTHER NEARBY SUBURBAN FIRE DEPARTMENTS – CIRCA 1937
WILMETTE:
1915 American LaFrance Type 75 750-GPM TCP
1923 American LaFrance Type 67 city-service truck
WINNETKA:
1919 American LaFrance Type 75 750-GPM TCP
1926 American LaFrance Type 14 quad
NILES CENTER (SKOKIE):
1926 Ahrens-Fox 1000-GPM TCP
1937 Pirsch Junior 750-GPM / 60-foot aerial quad
GLENCOE:
1924 American LaFrance Type 75 750-GPM TCP
NILES:
1936 Pirsch 750-GPM TCP
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