FDNY and NYC Firehouses and Fire Companies - 2nd Section

mack

Administrator
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Messages
13,431
Brooklyn Relics




Monday, January 20, 2014
Engine Company 212 - The People's Firehouse

The-Peoples-Firehouse.jpg
The People's Firehouse

F.D.N.Y. Engine Company 212 began as Engine Company 12 of the Brooklyn Fire Department at 136 Wythe Avenue in 1869. The company was reorganized once the Brooklyn Fire department was assimilated with the Fire Department of New York and became Engine Company Number 212 on January 1st 1913. The name “People’s Firehouse” was coined by an NYPD battalion chief who said "We're not going to remove them. It's the people's firehouse." when refusing an order to forcibly remove a group of activists that occupied the firehouse when the city attempted to disband it in 1975.

During the 1970s New York City faced financial difficulty and responded by issuing budget cuts thereby reducing city services. The F.D.N.Y. was one of the city agencies affected by the cuts, and in response ordered many firehouses to be closed. Between 1972 and 1977 51 firehouses were closed and in November of 1975 the People’s Firehouse was among 8 of those stations scheduled to be closed. At the same time that fire stations were being closed cases of arson were on the rise as property owners torched their buildings to collect on insurance and escape the financial losses associated with the dropping property values of a city in decline. With many wood frame homes in the neighborhood and arson on the rise, residents were rightfully concerned. In addition to arson the city allowed a policy of “planned shrinkage” to dominate Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Budgets for city services including fire, police, education and maintenance were reduced and abandoned buildings were often allowed to crumble or burn down rather than be demolished. Local citizens saw the closing of the firehouse as an unacceptable loss of fire protection and a sign that the neighborhood was being abandoned by city hall, setting the stage for the battle that ensued.

On the day the firehouse was to be closed one of the firemen opposed to the station closing repeatedly sounded the air raid siren in an effort to attract attention to the firehouse and more than 200 neighborhood residents arrived to protest the disbanding of Engine Company No. 212. When the doors to the firehouse were opened at the end of the day's shift and scheduled closing, community activists stormed the building and prevented the firemen and engine from exiting the station. While the firemen were eventually able to leave later in the day, the protestors and fire engine remained in the building. The occupation of the People’s Firehouse lasted sixteen months and included a diverse group of people rotating shifts at the firehouse to prevent the retaking of the station. The group included Boy Scouts, the elderly and entire families. In addition to the takeover of the firehouse activists protested at city offices and in front of Deputy Mayor John Zuccotti’s house, shut down traffic on the B.Q.E., as well as lobbied city hall and the state capital to reinstate the fire company.

Eventually City Hall caved into the demands of the community but at first stopped short of restoring the same level of service to the north Williamsburg firehouse. The first attempt to resolve the issue was to move Rescue Company 4 from Maspeth Queens into the firehouse. Like Williamsburg’s Northside residents, Maspeth community members protested and blocked their firehouse to prevent the engine from leaving. After protests and a court order prevented the moving of Rescue Company No. 4 the city resolved the issue by re-commissioning the firehouse as Utility Unit 1. However, the utility unit’s response to local emergency calls was restricted, leading to a continued dispute between the city and local residents. In 1991 the firehouse was occupied once again until engine company 212 was reinstated, restoring the level of service previously enjoyed by the community in north Williamsburg and Greenpoint. The firehouse eventually closed in 2003 due to cuts made by the Bloomberg administration.

After the original sit-in the people of the People’s Firehouse created a nonprofit advocacy group (The People’s Firehouse Inc.) led by Adam Venezki. The group advocated for the development of affordable housing and energy conservation programs, as well as provided tenant legal services and job training. More recently the firehouse was turned into a cultural space and community center for Greenpoint and Williamsburg called the Northside Townhall Community and Cultural Center.


1604701827131.png


 

mack

Administrator
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Messages
13,431
Cobble Hill community set on restoring old firehouse
BY ANNA SPIVAK • NOVEMBER 4, 2015 @ 4:03 PM




engine-204.png
Photo courtesy of Google Maps

Engine Company 204’s old headquarters.

There’s a metaphorical fire burning at 299 Degraw Street, a shuttered firehouse once home to Engine Company 204 that has stood dormant for nearly 12 years, as community support is ignited for the edifice to be re-commissioned as a fire-fighting facility for Cobble Hill’s growing community.
Decommissioned by the city in 2003 amidst a rash of post-9/11 cost-cutting measures, the firehouse’s closure stirred up feelings of rage among residents—with the New York Times reporting in May of that year that police had to use “two vans to cart away 12 protesters who had invaded the firehouse to keep it alive.”
Now, with the neighborhood’s former councilmember, Bill de Blasio — one of the 12 protesters arrested when the firehouse closed — serving the city as mayor, Community Board 6, representing Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Columbia Street District, Gowanus, Park Slope and Red Hook, is hopeful that the retired engine company can once again thrive.
“As our local councilmember at the time, you said that, ‘the population is booming in this area, the sale of Engine 204 makes no sense, [and] it is an important resource and essential to the safety of our growing community,’” Community Board 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman wrote to de Blasio. “Your leadership on behalf of our community was most inspiring.”

Not only did he protest the firehouse’s closure at the time, but de Blasio also organized a press conference for October 24, 2006, to raise awareness about the firehouse, writing, “although the firehouse has been closed since 2003, it is in jeopardy to disappear forever.”
“The rapid growth of the area, along with the historical presence of the building, makes Engine 204 an essential part of our community. We need to stand up and preserve this historical and functional building,” his 2006 press release read.
According to CB 6, after the fire commissioner notified the community of the mandated closure, de Blasio, joined by then-Councilmember David Yassky, urged the city not to sell off the property outright, but instead, retain ownership of the building and enter into a long-term lease agreement.
Initially, the city issued a Request For Proposals (RFP) to turn the building into a community facility, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra was eventually selected by the city to occupy the space. Ultimately, however, those plans did not come to fruition, as the organization ran into problems financially.

Fast forward to 2015, and Downtown Brooklyn is booming with development—with the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership (DBP) reporting a total of 36 projects totaling $4.2 billion. Twelve residential projects alone account for 8,475 new units of housing, according to CB 6, with DBP estimating as many as 12,500 new residential units in the area.
“Forecasts for residential growth in the Cobble Hill neighborhood and Downtown Brooklyn region have far exceeded expectations from the time you stood with us as our local councilmember,” Hammerman wrote to de Blasio. “I hope you see the merits in this suggestion and will take immediate steps to re-commission this firehouse. Our community stands ready to assist and support you.”
Contacted for comment, the mayor’s office provided this newspaper with a response from Frank Dwyer, an FDNY spokesperson, which read, “While there is currently no plan to re-commission E-204, the department assesses our operational needs regularly and will continue to do so in all communities throughout the city – including Community Board 6.”


 

mack

Administrator
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Messages
13,431
LONG-SHUTTERED CARROLL GARDENS FIREHOUSE TO BECOME NEW MUSIC SCHOOL
Kevin-headshot-1-192x192.jpgBy Kevin Duggan

Posted on December 12, 2019
Exterior-Image-1200x800.jpg
The city has secured $6.5 million to renovate the shuttered DeGraw Street firehouse and turn it into a music school.


They’re bringing it Bach to life!
The city unveiled its $6.5 million restoration plan to transform the long-shuttered Engine 204 firehouse in Carroll Gardens into a music school Wednesday, where the former blaze-busting hub will serve as the new outpost for the musical nonprofit the Noel Pointer Foundation, according to the organization’s head.
“I’m looking forward to great things happening in this space,” said Chinita Pointer. “We’re going to fill it with music.”
City bureaucrats with the Department of Cultural Affairs will oversee the redevelopment of the 162-year-old building on DeGraw Street between Court and Smith streets, and has not yet set a start date for the restoration, but officials anticipate the facility to open by 2024.
The city capital funding for the project includes $3 million from Mayor Bill de Blasio, $2.5 million from City Council, and $1 million from Borough President Eric Adams.
The Bedford-Stuyvesant music organization — along with Williamsburg design firm Vamos Architects — plan to revamp the two-story 4,300-square-foot space to accommodate program space, classrooms, a recording studio, and offices.
Classroom-700x467.jpg

The Noel Pointer Foundation plans to teach classical music classes in the former firehouse.Courtesy of Vamos Architects
The group currently teaches kids to play classical and modern music — instructing them in string instruments, piano, deejay, composition, music theory, and singing — out of its headquarters at the Herkimer Street community development organization Restoration, where it will live until the Carroll Gardens center opens. Educators also teach kids remotely at 36 public schools across the city.
The city closed the old Brooklyn firehouse in 2003 and considered selling it or turning it onto a schoolhouse — before cutting a deal to redevelop it into a community center, practice rooms, and artist spaces with the Brooklyn Philharmonic in 2008, despite some neighbors at the time hoping it would become an active firehouse again.

But that scheme collapsed when the symphony group went bust in 2013 and the dilapidated property remained vacant while city art honchos searched for a new organization to fill the space — and eventually stuck a deal with the Bedford-Stuyvesant group in 2018, according to Cultural Affairs spokesman Ryan Max.
The building was erected in 1857 and still bears the initials of the former Brooklyn Fire Department from before the Great Mistake of 1898 — when the vibrant city of Brooklyn became just one of five New York City boroughs, according to a 1892 tome dedicated to Brooklyn’s Fire Department History.

DSCF3774-700x467.jpgThe 162-year-old building still bears the initials of the old Brooklyn Fire Department
 

mack

Administrator
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Messages
13,431
Bstoner_final_Navlogo.png



Building of the Day: 124 Greenpoint Avenue

124-Greenpoint-Ave-PS-CB-2012.jpg
Late 19th century photo. Photo: nyfd.com

Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name:
Former Hook and Ladder Company Number 106
Address: 124 Greenpoint Avenue
Cross Streets: Franklin Street and Manhattan Avenue
Neighborhood: Greenpoint
Year Built: 1909
Architectural Style: simplified Beaux-Arts
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: Yes, part of Greenpoint HD (1981)

The story: This building used to be a firehouse; a hook and ladder company, which served to protect the homes and businesses of Greenpoint. There had been a firehouse on this location since 1856, when Hook and Ladder Company Number 6 was formed. In 1880, a new Italianate brick building was built for the company, one that stood until 1909, when this more modern limestone building replaced it. It’s a good looking, elegant building, spare in detail, but quite nice in all respects. The traces of the original “Hook and Ladder Company Number 106” can still be glimpsed in the frieze.
The period photo below shows that Italianate house and the firemen who worked there. Brooklyn’s fire department has always been manned by immigrants or the sons of immigrants, and Greenpoint’s firehouses were no different. All but one of the men in the photo were Irish, (one was a Scot), and all lived and served in the community. Greenpoint was home to many industries that were prone to fire, and these men are on record, having fought many a dangerous industrial fire, including fires in bagging factories, bakeries, sugar factories and box factories, as well as house and tenement fires. Many were seriously hurt, even maimed, in the line of duty.
After 1898, Brooklyn’s firehouses were now part of a greater New York City fire department, and by 1913, the name of the house had been changed to Ladder 106. This handsome new building was built to give the fire company the latest in equipment, which now included new motor vehicles for firefighting. The building is 25×62, giving them room for equipment on the ground floor, and plenty of room on the second floor for offices, sleeping quarters, bathroom and shower facilities, and a meeting room.
This building housed Ladder 106 until 1972, when they moved down the block to a new (and uninspired) headquarters at 205 Greenpoint Avenue. The city sold the building to the present owner in 1975. He also owns the former garage next door, at 122. The poultry business has been there a very long time. I don’t know what the former firehouse is used for now, if anything, but the poor building is certainly not living up to its former glory. Why would you paint limestone? This is a fine building, please give it some love!

(Above photo: Christopher Bride for Property Shark, 2012)
124-Greenpoint-Ave-nyfd.com-1-Ladder-6.jpg
Late 19th century photo. Photo: nyfd.com

124-Greenpoint-Ave-googlemaps.jpg


205-Greenpoint-Ave-CB-PS-2012.jpg
Ladder 106’s new headquarters, at 205 Greenpoint Ave.


 

mack

Administrator
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Messages
13,431
Brooklyn Fire Department House on Norman Avenue
Brooklyn, New York
Home to first responders to Greenpoint's devastating oil fires.



Screen%20shot%202012-08-29%20at%2011.47.55%20AM.png20191019_181542.jpg

Screen%20shot%202012-08-29%20at%2011.47.55%20AM.pngScreen%20shot%202012-08-29%20at%2011.47.55%20AM.pngScreen%20shot%202012-08-29%20at%2011.47.55%20AM.pngScreen%20shot%202012-08-29%20at%2011.47.55%20AM.pngScreen%20shot%202012-08-29%20at%2011.47.55%20AM.png20191019_181542.jpgScreen%20shot%202012-08-29%20at%2011.47.55%20AM.pngScreen%20shot%202012-08-29%20at%2011.47.55%20AM.png


WORK COULD BE VERY UNPREDICTABLE for the firefighters at 176 Norman.

By the 1890s the small Newtown creek had boat traffic rivaling that of the Mississippi. Ships carrying goods to and from industries along the East River and Newtown Creek supplied fiber to rope companies like the Chelsea Fiber Mills (now the GMDC), wood to the Eberhard Faber pencil company, and most importantly oil to the oil refineries along the creek, chief among these was Standard Oil. These industries, often barely regulated, could have disastrous failures.

The first responders of these disasters came from the building found at 176 Norman Avenue between Diamond and Jewel Streets. Still marked with BFD, this building once served as an outpost of that heroic Brooklyn Fire Department - specifically the home of Engine 38. Stationed near these Petroleum refineries alongside the Newtown Creek, the firefighters of Engine 38 - later 238 - never knew what they would be faced with when they showed up for work.

In 1919, a tank at the Standard Oil Plant, which covered some 20 acres, caught fire. Before the firefighters could respond the refining tanks exploded, breaking windows throughout the area, and rupturing a pipe which began spewing oil throughout the plant.

The massive fire required 40 engines from three boroughs - a number of which were still horse drawn at the time - and multiple fireboats to be used to put the fire out. One fireboat on the Newtown creek became surrounded by flames and had to rescued. The fire burned for four days.
It is believed that it was started on purpose to receive a insurance settlement and clear the land. (Not dissimilar to the suspicious circumstances surrounding the Greenpoint Terminal Market fire.)

Though the BFD is long gone, before the consolidation of the City of Greater New York in 1898, the independent City of Brooklyn had its own Fire Department. When the consolidation into the FDNY occurred, the designations for fire companies in the outer boroughs were numerically shifted so as not to cause confusion with Manhattan units. Engine 38 became Engine 238. 238 is now housed in a modern Firehouse on Greenpoint Avenue near McGuinness.

Today 176 Norman is home to the BFD Firehouse Studios which specializes in custom iron works.


 

mack

Administrator
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Messages
13,431
Historic West Harlem firehouse theater is for sale for $13M as part of development lot

POSTED ON WED, MAY 2, 2018BY MICHELLE COHEN
Faison-Firehouse.jpg
VIEW PHOTO IN GALLERY
Image via Google Maps.
The Beaux Arts firehouse that has been the home of the Faison Firehouse Theater since 1999 (with a celebrated “official” inaugural opening in 2007 that included a presentation by Maya Angelou) is for sale as part of a development property package, asking $13 million. The building at 6 Hancock Place in West Harlem is being offered with a neighboring vacant lot and a four-story townhouse, which together add up to a total of 30,000 square feet. The Faison Firehouse Theater was founded by Tony award winning choreographer George Faison and his partner, Tad Schnugg, and has been operated by the American Performing Arts Collaborative (APAC).


Faison_Firehouse_Theater-1.jpg
Image via Wikimedia Commons
The building itself was designed by architect Howard Constable and opened in 1909 for Hook and Ladder Company 40. In 1908 the New York Tribune wrote of the planned firehouse, estimating its construction costs at $40,000 and describing a façade of “ornamental limestone lighted by large mullion bays.”
Faison_Firehouse_Theater-crop.jpg
Image courtesy of Faison Firehouse Theater
operaishot.jpg
Image courtesy of Faison Firehouse Theater

Faison bought the then-abandoned firehouse on Hancock Place one block south of 125th Street in 1999 and renovated it in stages. Currently the building houses a 350-seat auditorium noted for its unique diagonal aisle, a café, dance and rehearsal spaces and a recording studio. The theater’s inaugural performance in 2007 featured a presentation by late author and artist Maya Angelou, in addition to music and dance performances and a performance by APAC youth. The theater’s spaces have been a community resource for music, theater, dance and art exhibitions including performances by the Center for Contemporary Opera. It is also a regular venue for the Harlem Opera Theater. Co-founder Tad Schnugg passed away in January of 2018.
faison-firehouse-map.jpg
Image courtesy of JR Gomes Properties
According to the listing, the parcel is “a tremendous profitable opportunity for investors to develop a prime condominium or rental building” in a sought-after West Harlem neighborhood. There’s no word at this time on any plans for the future operation of the theater.


 

mack

Administrator
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Messages
13,431
08/27/2014
Abandoned Firehouse in Harlem to Become New Cultural Center
by AFineLyne

1-this.jpg

We have often wondered about the status of the abandoned firehouse located at 120 East 125th Street in East Harlem and today we got our answer. Due to the tireless efforts of City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, this firehouse is one of five that was saved from the auction block, and will be converted into a cultural institution.







1-P1030006.jpg

The firehouse located at 120 E. 125th Street was closed in 2003
The firehouse, which is located just East of the 125th Street Metro North Station and the historic Corn Exhange Bank Building, will be given a new life by the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI). The CCCADI is a nonprofit organization dedicated to honoring and documenting the cultures of Africa in the New World. They are currently in temporary offices at Park Avenue and 125th Street, and if all goes smoothly, they hope to be in their new home in the firehouse on their 40th anniversary, September 2015. The groundbreaking ceremony will take place next month on September 16.

1-thus.jpg

This firehouse is one of 5 firehouses that were decommissioned in 2003 & headed for the auction block
The building is a Romanesque Revival-style firehouse which was designed by Napoleon LeBrun & Sons and was completed in 1889. The firehouse was closed in 2003 and has remained empty. The president of the CCCADI, Dr. Marta Moreno Vega, hopes to create an environment filled with exhibits and educational workshops including workshops on Yoruba culture and religion. The center will join other cultural and artistic institutions in the immediate area such as The National Black Theatre on Fifth Avenue and The Studio Museum in Harlem located on the Western end of 125th Street.

1-this-2.jpg

The opening date for the new community center is set for September 2015


 

mack

Administrator
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Messages
13,431
NYC Landmarks East Harlem Firehouse
September 18, 2008

Slider_3_Firehouse_V1.jpg


Napoleon LeBrun & Sons’ Fire Engine Company No. 53, a Symbol of New York City’s Growth in the Late 19th Century, Is Cited for Its Handsome Design, Materials and Details

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission this week voted unanimously to give landmark status to Fire Engine Company No. 53, a four-story Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival-style building in East Harlem that was one of 42 firehouses and related structures designed for the City’s Fire Department by the prominent architecture firm Napoleon LeBrun & Sons between 1879 and 1895.

“This engine company was among the first of the handsome and highly functional buildings designed by LeBrun & Sons that set the standard for firehouse construction in New York City,” said Commission Chairman Robert B. Tierney. “The building’s marvelous details and design remain intact, and recall the days when horses, and later fire trucks, charged out of the main entrance to save lives and properties.”

Located at 175 E. 104th St., Fire Engine Company No. 53 was constructed between 1883 and 1884, and covered the area bounded by Fifth and First avenues and 96th and 116th streets. The fire company moved into the building in January 1885, and responded to approximately 154 fires in the district during its first year of operation.

The Fire Department commissioned LeBrun & Sons in 1880 to be the lead architect for a major campaign to construct dozens of distinctively designed firehouses as part of an effort by the FDNY to establish a strong municipal presence in the City, which was in the early stages of a period of intensive growth. The firm introduced such design innovations as indoor horse stalls on the ground floor and hose drying towers.

Fire Engine Company No. 53, a four-story brick building, is comprised of a cast-iron base with a wide entrance, and features decorative motifs such as torches, terra cotta sunflowers and sunbursts, and a pair of small pediments that are supported by corbelled brick brackets. The façade is virtually identical to that of a former firehouse at 304 W. 47th St., in Manhattan, which also was designed by Napoleon LeBrun & Sons and was nominated earlier this year for New York City landmark status. A vote on the proposed designation is expected at a later date.

Napoleon LeBrun, the son of French immigrants, established his architecture practice in Philadelphia in 1841, and relocated it to New York City in 1864. The firm is responsible for a number of churches in Manhattan, as well as several office buildings, including Metropolitan Life’s headquarters at 1 Madison Ave. and the Home Life Insurance Company Building, both of which are New York City landmarks.

Engine Company 53 was used as a fire station until 1974, and is now owned by Manhattan Neighborhood Network, who is renovating the facility into a state-of-the-art community media center.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission is the mayoral agency responsible for protecting and preserving New York City’s architecturally, historically and culturally significant buildings and sites. Since its creation in 1965, LPC has granted landmark status to more than 25,000 buildings, including 1,206 individual landmarks, 110 interior landmarks, 10 scenic landmarks and 92 historic districts in all five boroughs.


 

mack

Administrator
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Messages
13,431
Historic West Harlem firehouse theater is for sale for $13M as part of development lot
POSTED ON WED, MAY 2, 2018BY MICHELLE COHEN

Faison-Firehouse.jpg

The Beaux Arts firehouse that has been the home of the Faison Firehouse Theater since 1999 (with a celebrated “official” inaugural opening in 2007 that included a presentation by Maya Angelou) is for sale as part of a development property package, asking $13 million. The building at 6 Hancock Place in West Harlem is being offered with a neighboring vacant lot and a four-story townhouse, which together add up to a total of 30,000 square feet. The Faison Firehouse Theater was founded by Tony award winning choreographer George Faison and his partner, Tad Schnugg, and has been operated by the American Performing Arts Collaborative (APAC).


Faison_Firehouse_Theater-1.jpg

The building itself was designed by architect Howard Constable and opened in 1909 for Hook and Ladder Company 40. In 1908 the New York Tribune wrote of the planned firehouse, estimating its construction costs at $40,000 and describing a façade of “ornamental limestone lighted by large mullion bays.”

Faison_Firehouse_Theater-crop.jpg

operaishot.jpg



Faison bought the then-abandoned firehouse on Hancock Place one block south of 125th Street in 1999 and renovated it in stages. Currently the building houses a 350-seat auditorium noted for its unique diagonal aisle, a café, dance and rehearsal spaces and a recording studio. The theater’s inaugural performance in 2007 featured a presentation by late author and artist Maya Angelou, in addition to music and dance performances and a performance by APAC youth. The theater’s spaces have been a community resource for music, theater, dance and art exhibitions including performances by the Center for Contemporary Opera. It is also a regular venue for the Harlem Opera Theater. Co-founder Tad Schnugg passed away in January of 2018.

faison-firehouse-map.jpg

According to the listing, the parcel is “a tremendous profitable opportunity for investors to develop a prime condominium or rental building” in a sought-after West Harlem neighborhood. There’s no word at this time on any plans for the future operation of the theater.


 

mack

Administrator
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Messages
13,431
MANHATTAN’S ANCIENT FIREHOUSES
June 25, 2003

Firehouses have been in the news in 2003, as many have been closed or have had closing threatened by a cash strapped New York City, infuriating residents who fear inadequate protection from disaster as well as the sense of helplessness in the face of a seemingly uncaring bureaucracy.
This isn’t the first time the city has closed firehouses for whatever reason, however; on this page, we’ll see others that have succumbed and now serve other purposes.

160chambers.jpg
160 CHAMBERS STREET
Engine 29 from 3/29/1897 to Jan 1, 1947.


70barrow.jpg
70 BARROW STREET
Was built in 1851 for Empire Hose Volunteer and was used until they disbanded in 1865. It is now an apartment building. A spiral staircase from its firehouse days can still be seen through its front window.


78morton.jpg
78 MORTON STREET
From 1864-65, it was used by Howard Red Rover Engine Volunteer. It then became home for Engine 24 until Nov. 1975.


96charles.jpg
96 CHARLES STREET
First opened in 1857 as the home for Vol. Fire Co. Columbian and became home to Hook and Ladder 5 on Sept. 25, 1865. It was in use until Nov. 1975. One member of Columbian, James R. Tappan, was killed at Bull Run.


604.e11.2.jpg
604 EAST 11th STREET
In service as Engine 28 from Oct. 1880 to 1959. The present owners keep it painted red.


243.w20.jpg
243 WEST 20th STREET
Originally home to Vol. Engine 50 Liberty from around the mid 1850s. Became home to Ladder 12 on Sept. 1, 1865 where they stayed until Feb. 1967. It is now a women’s center.


165.w29.2.jpg
peterhackpic.jpg
165 WEST 29th STREET
Home of Engine 1 from 1873 until Nov. 1946. Currently retail. Plaque on exterior of 165 West 29th. Photo: Peter Hack


766amsterdam.2.jpg
766 AMSTERDAM AVENUE (between West 97th and 98th)

Damon Campagna, Curator/Director, NYC Fire Museum:
The 766 Amsterdam Avenue house originally quartered Ladder 16 from 1876 to 1882, when they were reorganized as Combination Engine Company No. 47 (steam engine, plus hose wagon, plus ladder truck). In 1891 CEC-47 was re-organized as a standard engine company (E-47) and moved to their current quarters on West 113th St. Ladder Company 22 was organized and quartered at 766 Amsterdam when E-47 moved out and worked there until 1960 when they both 145 W. 100 Street (with 76 Engine, also at 766 Amsterdam from 1957-1960). As an aside, Ladder 16 was reorganized in 1887 and quartered at 157 East 67th Street, where they remain today.


 

mack

Administrator
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Messages
13,431
Bstoner_final_Navlogo.png



Brooklyn Heights Montessori School Expanding
12-dean-07-2009.jpg

Jul 17, 2009

The Brooklyn Heights Montessori School is expanding its campus to include the old fire patrol station at 12 Dean Street. The school paid $1.9 million for 12 Dean in a deal that was recorded in public records this week. According to a press release sent out on the expansion, “the fire patrol station sits directly behind BMHS’s existing Bergen Street property. It is expected that the new property will be open and ready to admit as many as 40 to 50 new students in the next two years.” The fire patrol building has an interesting history that the Eagle wrote about recently: “The Brooklyn firehouse was, in fact, one of three remaining fire fighting operations of what was once a large network belonging to the New York Board of Fire Underwriters. Fire Patrol members acted as an auxiliary force in the city for over 200 years…Despite its union’s claim that it saved $80 million worth of assets annually, the consortium of insurance companies that paid for its operation, decided it was too costly to maintain and voted to disband the last three units of the Fire Patrol in 2006.”


 

mack

Administrator
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Messages
13,431
ENGINE 232 (MARINE) BERTH N 8TH STREET EAST RIVER MARINE DIVISION

ENGINE 232/TCU 732/LADDER 175 PRE-FABRICATED FIREHOUSE 266 ROCKAWAY AVENUE EAST NEW YORK, BROOKLYN DIVISION 15, BATTALION 55 "TIN HOUSE" "BMA"

Engine 32 (M) BFD organized Foot of N 8th Street East River 1893
Engine 32 (M) BFD became Engine 32 FDNY 1898
Engine 32 (M) became Engine 132 1899
Engine 132 (M) became Engine 232 (M) 1913
Engine 232 (M) disbanded 1914
Engine 232 (M) reorganized Foot of N 8th Street East River 1915
Engine 232 (M) new quarters Foot of Noble Street East River 1922
Engine 232 (M) disbanded 1959


Engine 232 reorganized 266 Rockaway Avenue with TCU 732 1971
Engine 232 disbanded 1975
Engine 232 reorganized 266 Rockaway Avenue at Ladder 176 1975
Engine 232 disbanded 1988

TCU 732 organized 582 Knickerbocker Avenue at Engine 277 1970
TCU 732 new firehouse 266 Rockaway Avenue w/Engine 232 1971
TCU 732 disbanded 1972

Ladder 176 organized 266 Rockaway Avenue at Engine 232 1972
Ladder 176 new firehouse 25 Rockaway Avenue at Engine 233 1987



E 232 F 6 (4).jpg
 
Last edited:
Top