Celebration Downtown: Renovations to the Old Pikesville Firehouse

When now-retired Lt. Wayne Ousler first reported to duty at the Pikesville Career Fire Station No. 2 in 1987, the Reisterstown Road building was heated with old radiators and cooled with window units.

Ousler recalled one day when he thawed his freezing toes on the radiators after a fire call in winter.

“I absolutely fell in love with this firehouse and this community and made it my home for the final 23 years of my career,” Ousler said Monday during a ceremony celebrating the reopening of the renovated Pikesville Firehouse at 1212 Reisterstown Road downtown.

County officials hope that turning the long-vacant firehouse into an office building will help spur more commercial activity in downtown Pikesville, one of County Executive Kevin Kamenetz’s goals.

“Walking in here you can see what a magnificent job that has been done,” Kamenetz said of the new offices. “This generates daytime activity (downtown) we need.”

The building is located in a highly visible commercial district, directly across from the historic State Police Headquarters on busy Reisterstown Road, and diagonally from the modern Pikesville Branch Library/Pikesville Senior Center building—a great combination of old and new, Kamenetz said.

The building has held a special place in the hearts of longtime Pikesville residents, especially firefighters.

“When transferring here I called this ‘the best-kept secret in the (Baltimore County) Fire Department,'” he said. “It was a single-engine (station), with a crew of only five.”

It had one other benefit: because the station’s entry was all paved, it was the one of the only stations that didn’t need the grass cut, he said.

Ourster joined other Pikesville firefighters and county officials on Monday morning at the firehouse to celebrate its rebirth as an office building, housing Katz & Luxenburg Certified Public Accountants, and Zahlco Construction and Design. There are also offices available to lease.

County Executive Kevin Kamenetz led a ceremony in the lobby, and outside raised the U.S. flag up the same flagpole that existed when the building was built in 1920.

Where the firetruck bay used to be is now the lobby of the renovated, 4,100-square-foot building. But its roots in public service are not forgotten.

On the walls are photographs of the firehouse, most from the 1920s. Those photographs, as well as displayed memorabilia, will be changed often to honor the building’s history.

Sam Luxenburg, a partner in the firm and one of the building's owners, honored the firefighters present and those who worked there in the past.

“We would like to take a brief moment to recognize those behind the history and character of this building,” Luxenburg said. "It takes a certain type of person to make a personal sacrifice for the safety and well-being of those around them—selflessness and altruism that most of us cannot begin to comprehend.

“We thank you for your example and service and want you to know that we take very seriously the responsibility to maintain the honor and stature that you and your predecessors have infused into this building."

The firehouse was vacant for 12 years before the accounting firm, with the help of Zahlco, invested more than $500,000 renovating it. A portion of the financing came from Baltimore County’s Department of Economic Development.

Katz & Luxenburg will be eligible for the commercial revitalization property tax credit.

Luxenburg and his partner Michael Katz moved into the building last month. Yonah Zahler of Zahlco Construction and Design “is the sole party responsible for the design and construction of the beautiful interior of this building,” Luxenburg said.

Kamenetz praised the project.

“Pikesville is a great historic community, and … as we move forward, we have to redevelop these communities without losing what makes them special, and this building is a perfect example of that,” he said.

This building was one of five buildings built by Baltimore County in 1920, he said, noting that it was first used as a combination police/fire station. The other remaining building is in Fullerton.

Kamenetz said he recalls the days when fire trucks would have to back out of the bay, into the middle of Reisterstown Road and stop—halting traffic—before proceeding to a call.

Before a new Station No. 2 was built in 1996 at 22 Walker Avenue, firetrucks were being built larger, and the equipment had outgrown the old firehouse, Ousler said.

"Soon we had very little room,” he said. “We made good drivers because we had only two inches on each side of the engine to pull out."

CORRECTION: The original version of this story and cutlines misspelled Wayne Ousler's last name.