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Historic Downtown Redding California Walking Tour
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The historic Redding Fire House is located behind the City Hall building. It was built in 1939 in a style that was similar to Art Deco, known as Art Moderne. Hallmarks of the style include a flat roof, curved glass, and rounded corners. The Fire House was designed by the architectural firm of Masten & Hurd and it was completed as part of a federal Works Progress Administration project.

Redding Fire House

Redding Fire House

Redding Fire House Plaque

Redding Fire House Plaque

Redding Fire House

Redding Fire House

Redding Fire House

Redding Fire House

Located behind the City Hall building, the historic Redding Fire House was built in 1939 in a style called Art Moderne or Streamline Moderne. This style was similar to and contemporaneous with the style known as Art Deco. Whereas Art Deco featured modern facades with ornate ornamentation, Art Moderne featured a simplified, stripped down version more common to industrial buildings, gas stations, bus stations, and drug stores built in the 1930s.

Like Art Deco, the Art Moderne style originated at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes, which was hosted in Paris. The idea was to originate a new design style that broke free of influences from the past. It was believed that this design aesthetic needed to authentically represent the new machine age in order to be truly modern. In large part, design styles such as Art Moderne and Art Deco were responding to and rejecting the popularity of revival styles in architecture and design, such as Spanish Revival, Colonial Revival, Greek Revival, and others. Instead, Art Moderne and Art Deco designs strove to eliminate "reproductions, imitations and counterfeits of ancient styles."

Specific attributes of the Art Moderne style, which are visible in the design of the Redding Fire House, include a flat roof, curved glass, rounded corners, smooth walls, and ribbon windows. The Fire House was designed by the architectural firm of Masten & Hurd. It was built as part of a federally sponsored Works Progress Administration (WPA) project, and it was overseen locally by the contractor J.P. Brennan and also by the federal Works Progress administrator, John M. Carmody. Currently, this historic Redding Fire House is still an active fire house, in use today.

"Architectural Styles: Art Deco", Noe Hill. Accessed March 15th 2020. https://noehill.com/architects/style_art_deco.aspx.

"Architectural Styles: Art Moderne or Streamline Modern (1930-1940)", Noe Hill. Accessed March 15th 2020. https://noehill.com/architects/style_art_moderne.aspx.

Gaines, Seth. "Redding Firehouse - Redding, CA", The Living New Deal. Accessed March 15th 2020. https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/redding-firehouse-redding-ca/.

"National Register of Historic Places in Shasta County", Noe Hill. Accessed March 15th 2020. https://noehill.com/shasta/nat1978000790.asp.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

The Living New Deal

The Living New Deal

The Living New Deal