Dorchester Illustration no. 2414 Fire station on Callender Street
Today’s photograph shows the fire station on Callender Street. Both the fire station and the house to its right have been demolished. The fire station was located at the corner of Lyford Street and Callender Streets at 124 Callender Street.
The 1910 atlas shows that the area south of Franklin Field was only partially developed. Willowwood Street and Mountain Avenue were filled with houses, but Jacob Street and much of Stratton, Floyd and Claxton Streets was vacant land. Callender street did not extend to Blue Hill Avenue. Presumably the station was built in the face of increasing construction of new homes in the area.
The fire station appears in the atlas from 1918, but the house to its right at 126 Callender Street does not. The house at the far right in the photograph still stands at 130 Callender Street, and its building permit is dated August 9, 1921. Most likely the other buildings on the street and in the area were built about that time or soon thereafter.
The 1933 atlas says the station is Engine 52 and Ladder 29.
An article in the Boston Globe for May 28, 1973, stated that the Concerned People’s Committee, a Dorchester self-help group was given the use of an abandoned fire station on Callender Street in Dorchester, where they hoped to establish a day-care center for preschool children. We are not sure whether the day-care center became a reality.