When the first patrol force was formed at the end of 1881, its officers rode in horse-drawn carts that carried medical equipment such as surgical tools and stretchers in addition to police paraphernalia.

Their services were essential during emergencies, such as the chaos of early 1884: patrol officers rescued those endangered by dangerous Ohio River flooding and sought to maintain order during the courthouse riots.

[5] City officials hoped to see its preservation and redevelopment, but the new owners sold it in 1984 to another company that demolished the building and replaced it with a parking lot.

Contributing to the design similarities were practical necessities: when built, all three housed both police and patrol, and the form of Police Station Five was dictated by its placement in a neighborhood of rowhouses with deep lots of narrow width; its horse-mounted patrol could only access their section of the building via side and rear doors facing alleyways.

Comprising approximately four hundred contributing properties,[1] the historic district encompassed four blocks of York Street,[8] including Police Station Five.