Here in downtown Ann Arbor rises the Hands-On Museum, a place built to turn curious visitors of any age into scientists through hands-on experimentation and exploration. The museum now occupies the historic Ann Arbor Central Fire Station, which served as the main station of the Ann Arbor Fire Department from 1882 to 1978. The city's firefighting story stretches back: in 1836 the village council organized two volunteer firefighting companies, and large fires in 1845 and 1865 prompted the construction of cisterns around the city for firefighting.
The fire department later constructed a new central station on the same block, and the Hands-On Museum built a large addition to the historic firehouse that now provides the majority of the museum's exhibit space. You're standing on the block bounded by East Huron Street, North Fourth Avenue, East Ann Street, and North Fifth Avenue, and the historic firehouse itself sits on the southeast corner of the parcel, at Huron Street and Fifth Avenue. Notice where the old firehouse brick gives way to the museum's newer addition, the two eras meeting right on this corner.