It was difficult to find a long-lasting, permanent home for the police officers of the town. Between 1939 and 1961 they would assume residence in five different buildings. After almost ten years in the old Wilmington News Office in the center of town, the selectmen abruptly ordered the police department vacate those premises and move back to the highway department garage. So, in 1939, much of what the Main Street office had to offer was suddenly lost. However, plans were soon in the works to obtain new office space at a place convenient to those that needed police services.
In March of 1941, the police department found itself in the process of moving again. The Wilmington Finance Committee had just issued the findings of their survey into the administrative and financial activities of all the town’s departments, boards and committees. Their findings relative to the police department was that its headquarters should never again be relegated to “an out-of-the-way section with inadequate office facilities.” As the committee was issuing its report the police department was already fulfilling their recommendations by taking up residence in a former storefront on Church Street. The Acme Cement and Lumber Company, a storefront attached to the Church Street Hardware building had been recently vacated and the police department was able to take advantage. The site provided a centrally located station with abundant office space and jail cells. It was even large enough to provide a sallyport for the ambulance which was soon relocated from the firehouse. For the next dozen years, the police department occupied the building. Its appearance was that of the quintessential small town police station. The white clapboard façade featured a center entrance bordered by two windows. Above the door was a blue lighted globe and the words “Police Station”. To the left of the entrance was the sallyport above which was the word “Ambulance” It was from this station the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor came just a few short months after its opening. Throughout the war, the police department and the auxiliary police force (formed by Chief Ainsworth as a war emergency to bolster the regular force) patrolled for saboteurs, functioned as air raid wardens and enforced dimout and blackout conditions from this location. In November of 1942, the ambulance emerged from its quarters here and responded to the Cocoanut Grove Fire. It also became the place from which the solemn news of the town’s war casualties came to be delivered to their next of kin. Into the 1950s however, the building had reached its capacity to adequately house the department and the town once again saw itself looking for a new headquarter for its police officers.
In the 1952 Annual Town Report, the public saw for the first time the conceptual sketch of their new combined police and fire station. Destined for a vacant parcel of land on Church Street between the town’s original firehouse and the Masonic Lodge, the red brick structure was completed in 1953. It featured, five drive through bays for fire apparatus and office, front desk, jail cell and cruiser sallyport for the police department. On the second floor, above the police station was the fire department quarters. The concept was flawed however, as the growth of the town far outpaced the strategic plans that led to this choice of quartering both departments. By the late 1950s the police department was again looking for a new home. In 1959 ground was broken for a new Colonial-style building. It was budgeted at $75,000.00 and was to be constructed on Adelaide Street, on the site of the former highway department garage and sometimes police station of the 1930s.
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