The most recent owner of the Lincoln Avenue Adobe Hall building, Steve Hanleigh, who leases the space to Vin Santo Ristorante and owns Realty Center—a residential and investment brokerage located upstairs—has been looking into the history ever since he bought the building in 1999.

Although numerous books have placed the location of the firehouse in the 1932 Adobe Hall building, says Willow Glen Books owner Kathy Adkins, including The Willow Glen Neighborhood by April Hope Halberstadt, Adkins says customers have told her that is incorrect.

But the debate over accuracy and the true location rages on.

Hanleigh's associate Bonita Beck was told that the floor in Vin Santo has an area that is slanted because it was used to hose down the firehouse, she says.

But according to John De Vincenzi, professor emeritus from San José State University and a local historian, the Adobe Hall building "couldn't have been the fire station" because George Brown had an auditorium in the Adobe Hall building.

"There's no way the fire department could've been in that building," says De Vincenzi, 82, who moved to Willow Glen in 1936. "The firehouse and the old Brown Hall existed at the same time so there's no way the firehouse could've been in that building."

Allan Gordon, who owned a business on Lincoln Avenue at that time, disagrees. He says he believes the original volunteer fire department was in the Adobe Hall building or close by because "I recall standing by the building when the engine went out on it's first trial run."

Hanleigh has an artist rendition of the fire station and says it couldn't be his building because the picture shows a turret on the roof in a different space than the one on his building. Beck says she has been working on the mystery of where the firehouse was located because she had to put the history on a use permit application.

"I think the fire station was next door to us where the dress shop called Alta is located now," Beck says.

Hanleigh says the artist drawing doesn't look like the building where Alta is located but the façade of that building might have been changed.

San Jose historian Leonard McKay investigated all the businesses that were located in the Adobe Hall building. He says the Vin Santo restaurant location did used to be the Willow Glen City Municipal building at one time and the fire department.

The upstairs was the Brown Auditorium from 1932 until 1956 when Tut's Auto Supply moved in, he says.

He didn't find any other tenants for the downstairs portion of the building until 1941 when W. Ray Moody Plumber and Sheet Metal moved in. That space was home to a number of businesses over the years, including a hardware store, cleaners and hair salon.

Hanleigh says when he moved in he "didn't have the heart" to convert the large open auditorium space into offices. He wanted to preserve its history so he renovated the hall. He put in new light fixtures, painted the area and stained the beams.

The hall was used as a Masonic Lodge for about 40 years, he says.

Drawing courtesy of Steve Hanleigh Back Then: According to a historical rendition given to Adobe Hall building owner Steve Hanleigh, the fire station operated from 1342 Lincoln Avenue and the building resembles the Adobe Hall.

"I want to rent this historic hall for the benefit of the community," Hanleigh says. "Neighborhood organizations can meet here and I want to donate it for other civic events throughout the year."