Deed records
The evolution of the North Rose Fire Department is inseparable from the land on which it stands, the family who donated it, and the civic organizations that shared its neighborhood. Across the mid-twentieth century a series of property transfers, legal negotiations, and community commitments quietly shaped the department's physical footprint and its ability to grow.
Data on these transactions is limited, but enough survives to present for awareness. Records appear below in chronological order.
- 1911
Fire District Boundaries
The earliest surviving description of the fire district's boundaries, filed with the Town of Rose and defining the territory the department was organized to protect.
- 1939
Conveyance of the Minor-Young American Legion Post 582 Building — Caroline Avenue
The Minor-Young American Legion Post 582 owned the building standing next to the department's first station on Caroline Avenue. By the late 1930s it had become dilapidated and beyond economical repair, and the Post conveyed the property to the fire department on the condition that the building be razed and the ground used as a parking lot. Legion members continued to meet at the Caroline Street fire station for years afterward. The Post remains chartered today, with a small membership that gathers occasionally to sustain the charter.
Miner-Youngs Post No. 582, American Legion (left) beside the original North Rose Fire Department station on Caroline Avenue. - 3 July 1945
Firemen's Field — Hill Family Donation and Stipulations
Attorney Willson P. Smith of Fulton, New York wrote to A. Gray Skutt of North Rose on 3 July 1945 about the deed to the North Rose Fire Company. Smith had spoken with Mrs. Hill and asked that a representative of the fire company settle three points with her before he prepared the deed: the entrance she wished erected at the park, what the park should be called, and what should become of the land if and when the fire company had no further use for it. Smith suggested a cobble-stone post for the entrance — more rustic and better looking with grass grown up around it than brick or wood — and that it be wired so an electric light could later be placed on top. The Hill family's gift of this North Huron Street parcel became the Firemen's Field, and it is the ground on which the current fire station stands.
Letter from Willson P. Smith, Attorney at Law, to Mr. A. Gray Skutt, dated 3 July 1945, setting out the terms discussed with Mrs. Hill. - 1949
Firemen's Field Deeded to the North Rose Fire Department
The Hill family completed the donation of the North Huron Street parcel to the North Rose Fire Department to be used as the Firemen's Field. The original deed has not been located; the 1945 correspondence above preserves the terms the family attached to the gift. This parcel later became the site of the second and current fire station.
- 29 June 1962
Deed of Conveyance — Fire Department, Inc. to Fire District
Indenture dated 29 June 1962 conveying the Huron Street parcel — 1.006 acre in Lot No. 152, surveyed by Harnish & Lookup on 10 January 1962 — from North Rose Fire Department, Inc. to the North Rose Fire District, signed by President Richard Noyes and recorded in Liber 507 of Deeds, page 315, on 10 July 1962. The land traces back to the 2 June 1959 deed from the trustees of the North Rose Fire Company (James Campbell, Richard A. Weed, and James Barnes).
Page 1 — indenture between the Department and the District 
Page 2 — metes and bounds along Huron Street 
Page 3 — rights of way and chain of title 
Page 4 — execution and notarial acknowledgement - 1962
Incorporation of the North Rose Fire Department
At the time the Huron Street station was being built, the department's attorney George F. Thomas worked to incorporate the North Rose Fire Department. A series of exchanges with New York State followed, and several requests and submissions were rejected; the surviving correspondence is not conclusive, and it is possible the department was never formally incorporated. The practical implication was difficulty obtaining mortgages or borrowing money — an obstacle the department overcame by securing bonds from local citizens who had the means and the willingness to help buy equipment.
A community effort across generations
Taken together, these events form a narrative of a fire department shaped not only by its members but by the broader community. Families donated land. Veterans' organizations shared space. Local citizens purchased bonds to keep the department solvent. Through each challenge — legal, financial, or structural — the department adapted, expanded, and remained rooted in the civic life of North Rose.
The fire station on Huron Street is more than a building. It is the culmination of decades of cooperation, generosity, and perseverance, and its history reflects the character of the community it serves: practical, committed, and deeply interconnected.