The Engine Company Number 8, built in 1899 in Erie, Pennsylvania on 23rd and Ash Streets, has served as much more than a firehouse. It has served as a community gathering place, a local landmark.
This building was a firehouse from 1899 to 1982. It was also a bomb shelter in the 1950's and a Civil
Defense Police Headquarters in 1954. For years this building served as a newspaper distribution center until it closed in 1982. It sat quiet with no activity for approximately 15 years.

The Engine Company Number 8 came alive in 1997 when its current owner, Keith Shelly, turned this building into an American motorcycle business. He named this business "The Engine Company" in relation to both its prior function as a Fire Engine company, and its current function as a business which specializes in the repair and rebuilding of motorcycle engines together with the fabrication of motorcycles.