The museum was founded in 1983 by a group of Columbus firefighters who wanted to preserve firefighting history. They formed a non-profit group that same year, the “Columbus Ohio Fire Fighter’s Museum” (our actual legal name). They were able to lease the current building from the city after the station was closed in 1982. It took 20 years of work and fundraising to get the museum open. It took about $900,000 to restore the outside of the building to its original look and renovate the first floor. The museum opened to the public on October 1st, 2002.