From the Unified Government's website:
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Fire Station No. 12 in Rosedale was built simultaneously with No. 11. Like No. 11, it was designed in what was basically a residential style and was intended to fit comfortably into a residential neighborhood. When first built, the station was surrounded by houses and faced across Rainbow Boulevard toward an attractive series of one story, Tudor Style brick shops, since replaced by a McDonald's restaurant. When the city of Rosedale was consolidated with Kansas City, Kansas in 1922, the only fire station in the area was Fire Station No. 1, on the first floor of the Rosedale City Hall on
Southwest Boulevard. This was at a considerable distance from the newer residential areas on the hill to the south, and one of the provisions of consolidation was the construction of a new
station to serve this area. By June of 1924, when the new Bell Memorial Hospital and Kansas Medical School opened at the southeast corner of West 39th Avenue and Rainbow Boulevard, the need had become critical. Fire Station No. 12 , just three blocks to the south of the hospital, was put into service in November of that year, with a Thomas Flyer truck borrowed from elsewhere in the city.
Whereas Fire Station No. 11 was tall and narrow, No. 12 was a low and spreading structure in the California Bungalow style (contemporary accounts refer to it as “cottage style”), with all facilities on one floor. In plan the building was essentially a square, but a variety of
projections successfully concealed this. The two bay doors faced east onto Rainbow Boulevard and were flanked by two projections in a symmetrical facade. The center pier dividing the doors was subsequently removed to accommodate larger fire trucks, presumably in the 1950s. This is the only alteration to the exterior which has occurred. The walls were faced in dark red brick and cut limestone trim pieces similar to the materials used in No. 11, but somewhat more elaborate in their detailing. In keeping with the bungalow style, the narrow windows appear to be casements, but are actually double-hung, each being divided into eight lights by thin muntins. The roof was a very broad and low pitched gable, its wide overhangs being supported on angled wooden brackets. The hose tower was again placed to the rear, but from some angles sticks up rather
incongruously due to the low height of the rest of the building. In keeping with the residential character of the design, well kept lawns and hedges covered the remainder of the corner lot.
In 1929 the City decided to construct an addition or annex to Rose and Peterson's City Hall, and two new fire stations were also proposed. Two separate bond issues were approved by the voters on April 2 of that year, one for $70,000 for the addition to the City Hall and the other for $280,000 for the two fire stations. One of the stations subsequently metamorphosed into a new Fire Headquarters building adjacent to the City Hall Annex. The architect for the Annex and Fire Headquarters was Charles E. Keyser, who did a masterful job of continuing and complimenting Rose and Peterson's original design; both buildings are presently listed on the National Register
of Historic Places. The final cost of the Annex and Fire Headquarters was $282,633.68, which left roughly $67,000 available for the other station, no small sum at the time.