(Bottom photo by Danny Fulgencio)
Fire Station 15, built in the early 20th century, had architecture similar to several other two-story brick fire stations built around the same time in Dallas.
At least one other, on McKinney Avenue at Leonard Street, still stands.
Oak Cliff native Robert Camplen went to work at the old station at 600 N. Bishop in 1972. It was his first assignment as lieutenant.
“I loved it because I was home,” he says. “I was born just down the street at Methodist, went to school in the neighborhood, played in the creeks there, and now I was working in my backyard.”
He thinks this picture of him in front of the station was taken in 1973.
The station moved to 111 E. Eighth in the summer of 1975, and that one is still in operation today.
The old fire station later was converted to an office building. Gloria’s Latin Cuisine renovated the old firehouse, and after closing its original location on West Davis Street at Llewellyn Avenue, moved in 2011. Gloria’s won an award for its preservation efforts from the Old Oak Cliff Conservation League, now Heritage Oak Cliff, in 2012.
