A small building has sat in the center of Albert Winn Park in Midtown for nearly a century. Without signage and closed to the public, it has occasionally popped up as a discussion topic online, with locals asking about its purpose.
The Art Deco structure was constructed by the Works Progress Association in 1937. As the Albert Winn Fire Alarm Dispatch Station, operators inside would coordinate emergency responses throughout the city.
In 2001, the City of Sacramento and the Winn Park-Capitol Avenue Neighborhood Association received an award from the Sacramento Chapter of the Art Deco Society for their renovation of the storied structure, which was still in use into the early 2000s.
For nearly a decade, though, the former Dispatch Center stood vacant. In 2017, the city announced plans to rent out the space as a restaurant. However, those plans didn’t come to fruition.
In 2022, the Sacramento Business Journal reported that in 2020, the city had spent $1.5 million dollars of Measure U funds on renovations to the building. (By time of publication, the City of Sacramento had not confirmed the amount).
In addition, the State of California in 2021 awarded the city one million dollars for the completion of the renovations as an outpost of the Latino Center for Arts and Culture (LCAC).
An installation in the Coordinates: Dispatch pop-up art exhibition located inside the historic fire alarm station at Winn Park in Sacramento on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. LIBBY SIMPSON libby.simpson@sacbee.com
According to city spokesperson Gabby Miller, construction was completed in June 2025. However, the LCAC “has since stepped down from operating the Winn Building to focus on stabilizing its internal operations,” she told The Sacramento Bee.
She added that it is now under the management of the Department of Youth, Parks and Community Enrichment, and is available for short- and long-term rentals. Part of the improvements to the structure included adding ADA access as well as restroom upgrades, according to the Explore Midtown website.
Saturday, Aug. 7, the Albert Winn Fire Alarm Dispatch Station will open to the public for a limited time. Then, from Aug. 8 to Oct. 10, the building will host the art show “Coordinates: Dispatch,” with works from more than 30 local artists on display.
The show is a project of Sites of Vacancy, which, according to its website, “is an interdisciplinary curatorial agency that transforms vacant and transitional spaces into sites of cultural experience.”
The historic 1937 fire alarm station located at Winn Park on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. The building will house the art exhibition Coordinates: Dispatch from Aug. 8 to Oct. 10, 2026. LIBBY SIMPSON libby.simpson@sacbee.com
The show’s name references the site’s history, and each of the works was commissioned especially for the installation, with artists sharing in the net ticket revenue. The works themselves, noted the agency in an Instagram post, range from sculpture to audio and video art.
Tickets for “Coordinates: Dispatch” are $25, and can be purchased online.
The show is open to visitors Thursdays and Fridays from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., and Saturdays from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m., with last entry at 9 p.m.
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Anne Ewbank is a service journalist and food reporter for The Sacramento Bee. Previously, she worked as a writer and editor for the New York-based travel website Atlas Obscura, where she covered food and culture. A California native, she is a graduate of Occidental College and Yale University.