Fire Station No. 4, which housed generations of firefighters standing sentry over North Beach, crumbled under a wrecker's claw Monday morning to make way for a sleek new firehouse.
The Colonial-style building, constructed in 1937 by local architect Robert Law Weed, has been at the center of controversy since the city's building department declared it structurally unsound in 2001.
Displaced firefighters have lived out of nearby trailers as the historic preservation community battled to save the structure, located at 6880 Indian Creek Dr.
Preservationists hailed the building as an integral piece of the city's architectural history, while city officials eventually concluded that the estimated price tag to save it -- which climbed to almost $1 million -- was excessive.
The estimate included both the cost of structural repairs and of moving the building to the back of the lot to make way for the new station.
The commission voted to tear the building down a year ago.
''I wish we could have saved the building, but the cost was too high,'' said Commissioner Luis Garcia, the city's former fire chief. ``It's with a heavy heart that I see it go, but now the new firehouse needs to get built because that's a very important station.''
Preservationists mourned the loss. ''It was a great neoclassical building and the city had only about six of them, and with this demolition it's down to about two,'' said Michael Kinerk, chairman of the Miami Design Preservation League, which fought to save the firehouse. ``It's a significant loss.''
Many of the department's seasoned firefighters, who rotate among the city's different assignments, spent time under Fire Station No. 4's roof.
A dozen of them watched from the curb as the wrecker tore down the station, delicately avoiding the chrome pole, which is slated to be preserved.
''There's a lot of history in that building,'' said Chris Kirk, a firefighter who more than 20 years ago spent his first two years with the department at the station. ``It makes me think of the good times with the guys and the tough times with the calls.''
Over the past 15 years, the growing population in North Beach has made the station more significant. 'Way back when, this used to be called the `retirement home,' because the area was so quiet,'' Kirk said. ``Now it's our busiest zone.''
The new $2.7 million fire station, which will be a two-story structure with three large engine bays and living quarters for 12 people, is scheduled to be finished in the fall of 2005.
A memorial to the old station, using the chrome pole and salvaged pieces of the signature green tile wall around the engine floor, will occupy part of the entry area of the new station.
The new firehouse will be dedicated to Lenny Rubin, a firefighter who died in a 1962 fire at the nearby Carillon Hotel. He is the only city firefighter to die in the line of duty since the department's 1917 founding.
The docks and seawall adjacent to the fire station will also be repaired as part of the project, which will be funded by the $92.4 million General Obligation bond approved by voters in 1999.
