Old Firehouse to become the new Firehouse Brew Co.

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Old Firehouse has stood for 68 years in Steeleville and has gone through many changes. Originally constructed as a combo City Hall/Fire Station in 1941, it has since become a residence, a storage building, and soon will house a restaurant. There will also be office suites on the upper floors.

Martha Hunter, Alexandra Pokrzywinski, and Jane Hicks bought the building back in June of 2008. The previous owner had possession of the building for over twenty years, actually living in the upstairs portion of it for awhile. However, they moved out and used the building for storage before it was bought up by the trio of entrepreneurs.

The name of the restaurant will be The Firehouse Brew Company. They desire to honor the firefighters who came before them in the building. They plan on serving coffee and beer along with other things. There will also be four office suites upstairs. Three have already been rented out, but one is still available for rent. In the future, they plan on building an outdoor patio with a honor wall dedicated to the public servants of Steeleville.

The new firehouse and city hall was constructed in 1982, as a result of city expansion. In turn, the firefighters moved across the street. However, they left a little piece of Steeleville history behind.

Fire Chief Carlos Barbor had mixed emotions about the move. He said, "We were excited to move... excited to see the city expand. Yet, there is always the old, sentimental values."

Apparently the building needs some major renovations, the foremost being a new roof. With an old roof comes major leaks and that leads to water damage in the building, all which needed to be repaired with haste. Recently, repairs began on the staircase as well as a total replacement of the upstairs floor. The downstairs is beginning to be renovated for the restaurant. The future is looking good for the old firehouse.