Battle for the teen center: Eastside youth fight to reopen beloved Redmond space

For over three decades, the Old Fire House Teen Center in Redmond has served as a beloved gathering space and creative refuge for teens living on Seattle's Eastside and beyond.

But when the City of Redmond indefinitely shuttered the 73-year-old building back in March, the closure left many teens in a state of limbo, and struggling to maintain their community.

The Redmond City Council will get a clearer picture Tuesday night of what it’ll cost to potentially re-open the center. When the Old Fire House was indefinitely closed in March, the city cited “long-term structural challenges” that made the building unfit to be used.

“Because the building was built back in the [1950s], it has all of the typical building materials from that time: asbestos, lead paint. And a lot of the building is original,” said Loreen Hamilton, the director of Redmond’s Parks and Recreation Department.

Hamilton said that in order to get a full assessment of the building, those hazardous materials needed to be investigated, and the teens needed to be moved.

“We have not permanently closed the teen center,” Hamilton said. “We have moved operations out of the teen center as a decision is made about the future of that facility.”

Estimates from a consulting firm say it would cost the city about $9 million to renovate the Old Fire House, and more to raze the building and construct a new teen center.

But teens who have found community at the Old Fire House have pushed back against the closure — however long it may be. For 16-year-old Forrest Cole, the Old Fire House is “magical.” He started going to the teen center in January 2024 to perform with his band.

In the time leading up to the concert, Cole would drop by the Fire House to get a better sense of the venue, and over time, he discovered a community.

Whether it was your first time at the teen center, or you were a regular, Cole said you could always expect to be greeted with a chorus of “hello.” Staff members made a point to introduce themselves to new people, and teens always seemed excited to get to know each other.

“I think the Fire House is the only place where I’ve had an experience like that, where people want me to be there,” Cole said.

Cole has worked with friends to organize a social media campaign to save the Old Fire House, and teens have shown up to Redmond City Council meetings to testify in favor of re-opening the building.

For Cole, it’s not just about the people there.

Cole would wander a hall in the Old Fire House lined with “the coolest posters in the world,” featuring artists who had performed there over the years: Modest Mouse, Death Cab for Cutie, and Bikini Kill.

Concerts and battle of the bands have been encoded into the DNA of the Old Fire House since its inception in the 1990s. Footage from a 1998 show featuring the post-hardcore band The Blood Brothers now lives on YouTube. The footage shows teens chatting, moshing, and screaming along to their favorite lyrics.

During a Friday evening back in June, right after the end of the school year, another battle of the bands took place — but it wasn’t your typical Old Fire House affair.

About 30 people, mostly adult family members and supporters of those performing, sat politely in folding chairs at the Redmond Senior and Community Center. There was no moshing, no screaming along to favorite lyrics. Only two acts made it to the performance at the community center.

“It’s really sad to see the battle of the bands sort of become something like this," musician Chester Anderson said. "You can really just tell the impact all of this has had already."

Anderson competed during last year’s competition at the Old Fire House and took second. He came back this year to judge the competition, and the effect of the Old Fire House’s closure was evident to him.

When it closed, the community within the Old Fire House began to splinter. It used to be the home for teen programs and events in the city, and would draw youth from all over the Eastside and beyond.

Now, it’s a challenge to get teens to show up.

“Because it’s [at the community center] and not the Fire House," Anderson said. "I’d imagine a lot less people would even know what was going on or just want to go."

In the meantime, the city has been encouraging teens to go to an interim home, the Redmond Community Center at Marymoor Village.

At the community center, you won’t find the old Polaroids or Sharpie-drawn doodles that covered the walls of the Old Fire House.

“This looks like it was made by Microsoft,” Old Fire House devotee Wolfe Adriatico groaned. “This looks like an internet cafe.”

Even though Adriatico isn’t a fan of the interim teen center, she said she’s been going to Marymoor just about every day.

Typically, she’s the only teen from the Old Fire House who drops by.

“I’ve been trying to make this place as appealing as I possibly can," Adriatico said, "but it’s very hard."

Ariatico said when teens were first moved to Marymoor, gym equipment filled the space that was supposed to be the new teen center. Sometimes, adults would wander in, asking what had happened to the room.

The city has moved the gym equipment out and tried to work with Adriatico and staff to make the space more inviting. Some guitar stands were added to the walls, and some archival materials from the Old Fire House have been moved over.

But most teens aren’t returning, and lately, Adriatico said, the remaining staff members from the Old Fire House have been letting her know it’s OK if she wants to stop coming to Marymoor.

Adriatico said those words “suck” to hear, because at the Old Fire House, staff members had the opposite issue.

“[They were] telling kids, ‘You gotta get out. It’s 8:30. You have to get out of here. We’re closed,’” Adriatico said.

A teen center should be somewhere youth want to be, she said, but Marymoor just isn’t.

It’s been hard to keep going, Adriatico admitted.

But instead of giving up on Marymoor, Adriatico said she’s doubled down on her commitment to show up.

Recently, another teen has started coming by on Wednesdays for band practice.