The Town's North Fire Station was awarded 2025 Project of the Year by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Palm Beach Branch, during the Engineers Government Night Reception.
In November of 1927, the construction of the North Fire Station at 300 North County Road at the corner of Wells Road and N County Road was completed and opened for operations. The North Fire Station is among the oldest operating fire stations in Florida. Minor renovations took place over the years, with improvements in May 1987 to include Administrative Offices for the Department on the third floor. The building houses 11 fire-rescue and civilian personnel and was landmarked in 1988. In 2004, the building suffered major damage from Hurricane Frances and Hurricane Jeanne, leading to the last renovation in 2005. The North Fire Station is an integral, historically landmarked building located within a residential area that services the northern one-third of the Town’s population.
A facility inspection in July 2021 identified the need for major repairs, including roof, window, and door replacements, water leak repairs, and some structural concerns. In 2022, the Town of Palm Beach embarked on the $ 17 million rehabilitation of the North Fire Station, which included a complete restoration of the landmarked structure.
As part of the restoration, given the station location, a fully functional temporary station was required to maintain operational service and not impact response times to calls from residents. The project's first phase included building a temporary station adjacent to the current station: a dormitory to house fire personnel on shift, covered canopy storage for the fire trucks and equipment, bunker gear storage, communication software, and notification upgrades to respond to calls. Once the temporary station was completed in July 2023, the fire personnel moved out of the landmarked building, and the rehabilitation project began.
The first phase of the rehabilitation was the development of restoration plans following the selected removal of the interior walls and substructure for analysis. The restoration plans were led by Mark Marsh of Bridges Marsh and Associates with an entire team of subconsultants. Hedrick Brothers Construction conducted the complete rehabilitation of the North Fire Station.
The rehabilitation which commenced shortly after commissioning of the temporary station included: stabilization of the existing foundation with the use of helical piles, structural steel beam replacement, structural reinforcement of all window and door openings to the foundation, preservation of the existing tower, restoration of all cast stone, replacement of all floor joists and beams, new trusses, new roof, hurricane impact windows, fast action bi-fold doors, new electrical, replacement of all mechanical, plumbing and HVAC system, Decon room replacement and apparatus bay upgrades to include plymovent for exhaust containment from vehicles at start up.
