In the past two years, the old firehouses in Belmont have been sold to developers and replaced by new buildings. The Waverly station was sold in 2005. In 2006 both the old Harvard Lawn station and the Belmont Center station became private properties.

Trudi Miller Murphy told me, by the way, that the Waverly station is now a 6-unit condo.

Here’s the story of what is happening to the Leonard Street/Belmont Center station.

Restaurateurs on fire

By Cassie Norton
Friday, March 09, 2007
From Belmont Citizen-Herald

The rumors can be put to rest. Cambridge restaurateurs Dante and Damian de Magistris have signed a lease for the first floor of the Belmont Center firehouse, now owned by the Burke Land Company.

Brian Burke, owner of the historic Leonard Street building, called the agreement “a long-term deal” for a 130-seat restaurant where fire engines once parked.

Damian de Magistris represented the brothers at the lease signing, an informal affair that took place at the station on the hood of Burke’s truck.

He said plans for the restaurant are about half done. There’s no name, no color scheme and no opening date beyond “two or three months” after Burke finishes the “rough stuff” of restoring the building. Still, de Magistris said he and his brothers are excited about the challenge ahead.

“I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be fun. I can’t wait to get this place fired up,” he said, looking around the disheveled garage.

The fire station is just a few storefronts down from Leon & Co., the hair salon owned and operated by Damian’s father, Belmont resident Leon de Magistris. Damian said the brothers won’t mind working in such close proximity to their father.

“Everything we do is a family affair,” he said.

That sentiment makes sense to Burke, whose sons Brian and Alexander also signed the lease. The brothers will move the real estate offices of Burke Land Co. into the green (formerly pink) building next door as soon as reconstruction is done there.

The de Magistrises are the first tenants to sign with Burke, who said there are ongoing negotiations with other businesses to occupy the second floor of the firehouse and the first floor of the real estate offices.

Plans for the restaurant, which are still taking shape, include an entrance on the left side of the building in an atrium connecting the two buildings, an elevator in the pole shaft and an open kitchen. Burke said his crews will preserve as much as of the original character of the building as they can.

The company has been collecting old photos of the station to see what it used to look like. They plan to restore the original brick arch separating the front doors of the garage and giving the doors “a more modern flair.” The damaged flooring of the garage will have to be scrapped, but details like 100-year-old gauges and old maps from the walls will be preserved.

The restaurant will serve lunch and dinner seven days a week, Burke said.

“What they serve is up to them,” he said.

Damian de Magistris said the menu is “nowhere near set in stone,” but it will draw from the family’s Italian roots. They do plan to apply for one of the town’s all-liquor licenses.

However the restaurant turns out, de Magistris has grand plans for it.

“It will be a centerpiece of Belmont,” he said.

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