Listening to Gary Johnson, a 40-year member of the Greenwood Volunteer Fire Company and its chief, the toughest battle in the 100-year history of the company was not fighting a fire. Rather it was dousing the city’s effort to take the station that closed in 1973 and that the company planned to transform into a museum.
It was 1978, a year after Johnson joined the company, and the city was looking to demolish the station as it had been built on Clark Street, which was a paper street but offered access to a property being eyed for development.
“It would have meant the leveling of the station,” Johnson said Saturday morning as members, the city’s color guard, neighbors and city officials gathered outside for ceremonies commemorating the company’s 100th anniversary.