Sunday, July 19, 2009

History of a Northern Blvd firehouse

From the Newtown Pentacle:

Just off the corner of Steinway is 38-13 Northern Blvd. It stands opposite the cyclopean Standard Motor Products building, and at the foot of the bridge which carries Steinway into 39th street and south to Skillman Avenue over the Sunnyside Yards. Currently, the structure houses part of the NYPD’s ESU units- the Emergency Medical Squad. The building was originally a firehouse- the Hook and Ladder 66.

Built concurrently with the landmarked Engine 158 fire house at 10-40 47th Avenue, the building was budgeted to cost $18,000 to build and complete in 1901, but ended up costing $23,000 when it was dedicated in 1905. The architecture firm which built it was Paris & Schroeder, who designed the Bowery YMCA and many other Tammany projects. Along with the Engine 158 structure, this building was designed and overseen by Ernest Flagg and Bradford Lee GIlbert. Check this link out, for some local FDNY color from 1899.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ladder 66 is now Ladder 116 (all companies renumbered in 1913 after NYC expanded, the E158 house is really Engine 258)

The Ladder Company that occupied this Northern Blvd house is now located on 29th St near 37th Ave and was quartered with Engine 261 for over 80 years until "King Bloomberg" closed E261 in May 2003.

Anonymous said...

This an area that the bright lights in Dutch Kills recently upzoned (the only upzoning in the city boys and girls sponsored by a community!) for a wall of six story buildings.