Fire Station No. 11

This brick building which now houses a Caribbean restaurant was constructed in 1907 as a fire station. Fire Station No. 11 contained two Italianate styled arched vehicle entryways on the front (south) side. A one-story kitchen addition on the rear of the building dates to the 1950s. A bricked up arched entrance door on the building's west side once served for hay deliveries for the horses that pulled the fire wagons. Traces of the location where the horses' harnesses were hung were still visible in the ceiling in 1979 and the original fire alarm bell was in use in the active fire station. The active fire station building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980; it was one of four remaining historic two-story fire stations in the city.

The first fire station in the young city of Atlanta went into service in 1851. The firefighters were volunteers until 1882 when the Atlanta Fire Department was organized with three paid stations. Fire Station No. 11 was built in 1907 to serve the expanding population on the north side of Atlanta. It covered territory between Peachtree and Williams north to the city limits. Local architectural firm Morgan & Dillon was responsible for the design; they also designed the Atlanta Journal Building (1910) and the Auditorium-Armory (1906-1909). The restrained Beaux-Arts architectural style used for the fire station was popular at the time for public buildings. The building officially opened on May 1, 1908. The city's new mayor. W. R. Joyner, had served as chief of Atlanta's Fire Department from 1885 to 1906.

The foundation of the two-story structure is rough-hewn stones. Not long after Fire Station No. 11 was built, the fire department began to shift away from horse power toward motorized fire trucks. Since hay lofts were no longer needed, and since there was some concern about fire pole injuries to firefighters, the second story was eliminated from designs for new fire stations in favor of a bungalow style. The City of Atlanta's fire forces all were motorized by 1918.

Fire Stations No. 11 and 12 saved a new apartment building under construction from being destroyed by fire in early July 1913. A pile of wood shavings caught fire on the eleventh floor of the Ponce Deleon Apartments. Only minor damage to the apartment building was sustained.

When the building was documented for listing in the National Register in 1979, the basement was largely unused but contained remnants of a wooden storage bin for coal. The pressed-metal ceilings of the first and second floor were the originals. Two of the three circular holes in the first-floor ceiling contained fire poles. The original vehicular doors had been replaced to allow for newer, wider trucks to enter.

When its time as a fire station was over, the building was vacant. In 2003, it was listed on the Atlanta Preservation Center's Most Endangered Historic Places List. It next housed a restaurant (Engine 11 Firehouse Tavern) before again being vacant for a time. It was renovated in 2014 to hold a Caribbean restaurant, Negril ATL; the second-floor interior was modified to hold a large space for gatherings. The current location of Atlanta's Fire Station 11, also known as the Atlantic Station, is 165-16th St.

Atlanta Fire Department. History of Service: Atlanta Fire Department Commemorative Yearbook. Paducah, KY. Turner Publishing Company, 2001.

Atlanta Fire Rescue Department. History of Atlanta Fire Rescue, About AFRD. January 1st, 2023. Accessed March 10th, 2023. https://www.atlantafirerescue.com/about-afrd/history-of-atlanta-fire-rescue.

Atlanta History Center. Photograph: North Avenue Fire Station, Digital Resources of the Kenan Research Center. January 1st, 2011. Accessed March 10th, 2023. https://album.atlantahistorycenter.com/digital/collection/athpc/id/1315/rec/13.

Atlanta Preservation Center. Fire Station #11, The Most Endangered Historic Places in Atlanta. January 1st, 2023. Accessed March 10th, 2023. https://www.atlantapreservationcenter.com/place_detail?id=66&pt=1&year=all.

Henson, Steve. NRHP nomination of Fire Station No. 11, 30 North Ave., Atlanta, Georgia. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1979.

Anonymous. "Fire in Ponce Deleon Apartment Damages 11th Floor." Atlanta Georgian (Atlanta) July 2nd, 1913. , 1-1.