For over three decades, the Old Fire House was a space for teens that focused on art, music and bringing community together. Unfortunately, the Old Fire House will soon be torn down sometime in the future, with no confirmed date as of March 2026.
The Old Fire House had closed last year (2025), the Redmond City Council stated it was far too old to maintain or renovate after being in use for over 75 years. One of the bigger issues about the building is that it still contains asbestos and lead paint as well as structural issues.
After the news broke of its closing, teens were not happy about it. Teens and adults rallied together to stop Redmond from demolishing the building, but they have not succeeded. Despite the promise of constructing a new building, many didn’t share the same excitement. This would be destroying northwest music history in the area. This building was where a few music artists started their first shows such as Modest Mouse, Murder City Devils, Elliott Smith, The Blood Brothers, and Death Cab for Cutie.
Former Redmond Mayor, Rosemarie Ives (1991-2007), who helped oversee the center’s founding, also found it odd that the teen center was closing. “There was none of what I would call a logical progression,” she says about the council sessions following the closure, “the council was not given the most important thing, which is timeline.”
Staff were told they had two weeks to move out, barely giving them any time to try and move archival items out of the building.
The city convened a stakeholder meeting between September and November of 2025 to decide what should be done with the building. Out of the 22 members, only four were teens who frequented the Old Fire House, the rest were adults. The teens that attended the meeting expressed that they felt ignored.
While the Old Fire House remains closed, the city moved the teen center to a community center in Marymoor Village. Yet it was immediately met with dissatisfaction, one teen saying it “looked like it was made by Microsoft.” The community center is located in a non-pedestrian friendly area, and teens had to share the space with other people. Due to this change, many teens stopped showing up.
Steve Fields, a recently retired city council member, was disappointed how the council handled the closing. “This is one of the saddest, most disappointing things that happened during my time on City Council. The way we treated those kids, and the way the city kept everything hidden, it was really not good government,” Fields said in a Seattle Times article.
As things remain in limbo for the time being, teens are worried for their center’s future.
Sources:
Old Fire House to be demolished, putting legacy of WA music venue in limbo | The Seattle Times
Battle for the teen center: Eastside youth fight to reopen beloved Redmond space
Redmond seeks to move resources from popular Old Fire House Teen Center
How Redmond’s Old Fire House became the bedrock of a local music movement | The Seattle Times.
