Wedding DJ at The Firehouse in Goldsboro, NC

The Space

This building opened on April 5, 1939, as the new Goldsboro Fire Department headquarters, a WPA project built in the Art Deco style, and it served as the city’s central fire station until 1976, when the department relocated to a joint fire and police complex. David and Bethany Perry purchased the building in 2016 and put it through a $1.3 million historic tax credit rehabilitation, work that increased the property’s tax value by more than 800 percent and turned a retired municipal building into an event venue.

The main hall runs 2,100 square feet inside a 12,000-square-foot building, with high ceilings, exposed beams, and large windows that bring in real daylight rather than relying entirely on fixtures. The restoration kept the building’s original character intact, including the original fireman’s poles, so a couple gets a venue that reads as an actual former fire station and not a themed reproduction of one.

Capacity & Layout

Seated capacity runs 150 to 220 guests depending on configuration, with standing events holding up to 225, which puts the Firehouse in range for a mid-size wedding rather than a very large one. Couples can choose the main hall, a fenced-in ground-level outdoor area, or the rooftop terrace for the ceremony itself, then reuse the main hall or the rooftop lounge for the reception.

The rooftop is 1,400 square feet, partially covered, with a built-in bar, which makes it a genuine second event space rather than a bonus photo spot; a couple could run cocktail hour up there while the main hall gets turned over for dinner. A spacious, naturally lit bridal suite and a full prep kitchen for catering round out the practical spaces.

Amenities

A fair amount comes bundled with the rental already: tables, chairs, a state-of-the-art Bose surround sound system, string lighting and uplighting, and post-event cleanup are all included, so a couple is not separately renting basic furniture and sound equipment on top of the venue fee itself. An elevator on site handles accessibility between the main hall and the rooftop terrace.

The building’s history carries its own weight as an amenity of sorts: it was recognized as the 2018 Best Adaptive Reuse Project by NC Main Street, official recognition for how carefully the Perrys’ rehabilitation preserved the original Art Deco character, down to details like the fireman’s poles, while making the space functional for modern events.

Location & Getting There

The Firehouse sits in downtown Goldsboro, NC, in a building that has been part of the city’s streetscape since 1939, which gives it a walkable, urban setting rather than the rural or suburban footprint most farm and barn venues carry. It is open daily, Sunday through Saturday, from 9am to 11pm, unusually wide hours for a venue of this kind and useful for a couple planning an early load-in or a late teardown.

Sound behaves differently between the two main event spaces: the 2,100-square-foot main hall has high ceilings, exposed beams, and hard walls that hold and project sound well for an enclosed indoor reception, while the partially covered rooftop terrace is open-air, so a DJ working the rooftop needs a setup built for outdoor sound dispersion rather than the contained hall below.