Physical Appearance
The basic plan of the Parque de Bombas is a typical rectangular Moorish structure with influence of the Gothic Victorian style, measuring 65'-8" in width by 26'-3" in length. It is two stories high with a tower at each corner of the front facade (Marina Street).
The building is located in the city's central "Las Delicias Plaza" and it is attached to the Cathedral of Ponce at its rear boundary. Structurally, it is a wooden frame building with a pitched roof covered with galvanized zinc sheets. Exterior cladding is horizontal 1" by 6" wooden siding. Doors and windows are wooden. The windows are of the fixed louvered type, long, narrow, and crowned by an oversized fixed fan light.
The Moorish and Gothic Victorian influence is manifested immediately for its rectangular plan with towers at its front corners; its decorative composite curved moldings which follows the contour of the roof overhang throughout the entire structure; its colorful paint application (the building is painted in horizontal bands following the exterior cladding alternating Ponce's official colors, red and black; the interior is also painted very colorful, alternating vertical bands of red and orange that decorates the walls and a painted frieze with fireman's motif culminates the interior wall decoration); and the use of long and narrow windows with fans at its top; among other details typifies a Moorish style.
The building's layout is a large, central space, flanked by two lateral towers, two stories in height, which opens to the main central area. The main central area is used as garage facilities for the fire trucks, and the two lateral towers are used as living quarters and exhibition areas. An elegant central two-sided stairway with elaborated cast iron railing leads to a mezzanine area used as administrative offices. Some interior partitions were removed from the first floor when the structure was altered for its new use as a firehouse in order to accommodate the machinery. The building has been kept in good condition throughout the years.
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