The Plaza Firehouse was the first building in the city designed to house fire fighting crews and their equipment. A volunteer city Fire Department was formed in 1871. The first occupants of the Firehouse when it was built in 1884 were called the Volunteer 38s (this being the number of men in Engine Company No 1.) The Plaza Firehouse has been restored and converted into a museum which displays firefighting equipment of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.