There are boxes upon boxes of fading photographs, toy firetrucks, hand-written fire alarm logs and old rubber boots lining the top of file cabinets.

But it is the rows of dead horseflies in the windowsills that tell the oldest story of the old Fire Station No. 4: In 1909, when the station at 29 S. Institute St. opened, the small brick building housed horse-drawn fire engines.

Century-old horsehair buried under layers of plaster still attracts flies by the drove, a constant ­reminder of history for a group of retired firefighters working to restore the building to its original charm.

The Friends of Dr. Lester L. Williams Museum has been a work in progress for more than a decade and is far from completion.

Retired Colorado Springs firefighter Ray Turner initiated the project after his friend and former Springs Fire Department physician died in 1996 and left behind a collection of about 5,000 department artifacts.

Much of that history is displayed at the fire museum at the department’s headquarters on Printers Parkway.

“I enjoy the history of the Colorado Springs Fire Department. It is nice to have all this stuff and to have the original building,” Turner said.

His enjoyment is more of a consuming passion.

Turner, who retired 28 years, eight months and one day after he joined the department in 1970, leads a group of about eight who for the past five years have met at the old station every Thursday to chip away at the laundry list of tasks that must be completed before the museum takes shape.

When the department moved Station No. 4 to Southgate Road in 1972, the Police Protective Association moved into its former home for 10 years. Afterward, the building periodically stood vacant. It has housed Flight for Life and, most recently, the Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission.

With each group, the building changed. The last station in the city to house horses once had a room on the second floor stacked with hay. What is now the downstairs bathroom used to be the grain room.

The group is using the 1909 floor plans and old photographs to guide its restoration.Earlier this month, Turner and his crew installed the 1921 fire pole from Station No. 5, at 29th Street and West Colorado Avenue.

Turner and 81-year-old Leland Kinney, who has been retired longer than he was on the job, have a pair of metal knees from years of sliding down similar poles.

Kinney was a fire captain when Turner was a fledgling firefighter. Though he occasionally worked out of the station, Kinney spent most of his 25-year career at Station 1 downtown.Jeff Williams, the son of the department physician for whom the museum is named, said the memorabilia is just one of several legacies his dad left behind.

In a room stuffed with artifacts sit several trunks of old air masks, gear the doctor lobbied for nationally in 1955, warning of the dangers of carbon monoxide.

“He was so interested in all facets of the fire department,” said Jeff Williams, a retired banker. “But his key issue was promoting safety for firefighters.”

On the wall hangs a reproduction of a Jitney phone, named for the nickel required to operated it.

“Back then, the firefighters would call home, let the phone ring twice and hang up. They’d get their nickel back and their wives would call back. There never was a nickel in there,” Turner said.

There is no estimated open date for the museum. The volunteers complete projects as time, manpower and donations allow.

When the museum does open, though, it will be devoid of the dead flies; the crews are working to seal the cracks the flies are getting through.

Turner, a walking almanac of department facts and dates, believes the museum’s importance will come to shine as the city grapples with further budget cuts and a potential reorganization.

“If you don’t know where you were, you don’t know where you’re going,” Turner said.

Fire Station 5, which is being restored as a museum. Thursday, June 10, 2010. Photo by The Gazette/Jerilee Bennett

Hundreds of items are in storage for the Fire Station 5 is being restored to be used as a museum. The museum will be called the Dr. Lester L. Williams Fire Museum. This is a photo of the doctor. Thursday, June 10, 2010. Photo by (The Gazette/Jerilee Bennett)

Retired firefighters Leland Kinney and Paul Matthies (left to right) and volunteer Jeff Williams (background) are some of the volunteers working to restore the old Fire Station 5 in Colorado Springs. Thursday, June 10, 2010. Photo by The Gazette/Jerilee Bennett