SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — The Springfield Fire Department and Prince Hall Freemasons are teaming up to restore Engine House 5.

“This building stands as a legacy to the tenacity of a people,” Ken Page, of the Prince Hall Freemasons, told WAND News.

Engine House 5 was built in 1901 as the station for Springfield’s Black firefighters.

“They were given secondhand in this building, and they were segregated from the main firefighters. But they showed that it did not matter because what was inside of them was important, and it came out in their skills,” Page explained.

These firemen served the city, and even saved some of the Black homes and businesses attacked during the 1908 race riot.

“The houses that were being burned, were people that they knew,” Page added.

“Just knowing my grandfather was part of that history,” Chris Scott, the grandson of an Engine House 5 fireman, explained.

Scott’s grandfather, Elmer Young, was a coal miner by day, and started serving Engine House 5 in 1929.

“One time we had a fire actually in the basement of our house, when we I was a kid, and he drove up in the fire truck,” Scott said.

While he wasn’t on staff during the race riot, he worked at the station until it was closed in 1954.

“This is not just Black history, it’s not just east side history, this is Springfield history, this is national history- and we need to do everything we can to celebrate and honor that history,” State Senator Doris Turner explained.

The firehouse was taken over the by the Prince Hall Masons in the 1970s.

“He was very good friend with Abraham Lincoln, and he was a shoe cobbler. He made shoes for Abraham Lincoln,” Deborah Simmons, the granddaughter of a Prince Hall Mason, told WAND News.

Her grandfather, William Donegan, was involved with the firehouse as a member of the Masons. He was also a Black businessman who was lynched in the 1908 Race Riot.

“I think he played a big part in establishing it on down to where it is today,” Simmons explained.

Senator Turner helped secure a grant for $300,000 which will pay for the building restoration.

Click here to learn more about the fire house’s history.

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