image via the Historic Districts Council
In 1865, "suburban" fire companies were established in the mostly rural Harlem district. Less busy than their urban counterparts, the fire fighters were given less pay and no horse-drawn equipment. Included in these companies was Suburban Ladder No. 14 at 120 East 125th Street.
As Harlem developed, Suburban Ladder No. 14 was replaced by Hook & Ladder Company 14 on January 1, 1868. Still using the station house on December 18, 1881, the New York Dispatch described the company as "one of the best truck companies in the upper part of the city. It has good officers and men, the latter being under excellent discipline." But in 1888, the company was in serious need of modern accommodations.
A year earlier, on June 18, 1887, The Real Estate Record & Guide commented that fire stations were an exception to the very few "decent-looking" buildings erected by the city. "The Fire Department...had the good sense to employ architects of repute to design their buildings, and selected Messrs. N. Le Brun & Son for that purpose." Napoleon Le Brun had been appointed official architect for the department in 1879. Before the turn of the century he and his son would be responsible for the design of 42 fire houses.
Napoleon Le Brun & Son filed plans for a "four-story brick building" on April 27, 1888, projecting the cost at $16,500--or about $576,000 in 2026. Using a variation of its typical Queen Anne design, the firm added touches of Romanesque Revival in the undressed brownstone base, the medieval decoration carved into the second floor lintel, the rounded stone piers at the sides that terminated in carved finials, and the creative wrought-iron jib, or bracket, in the form of a dragon. (The jib was used to haul hay bales to the attic.) Le Brun & Son stepped away from both styles in designing the attic as a slate-shingled mansard in the Second Empire style.
Perhaps the first tragedy for Hook & Ladder Company 14 came on June 9, 1895. Patrick Conlin had been with the company since 1883 when he was 25. He was headed to work at 2:15 that afternoon when an alarm of fire at 165 East 112th Street came in. The truck raced down Lexington Avenue "at full speed," as reported by The New York Times. The article said, "he saw the truck going by and made a run to jump on the long rail which extends along the side of the truck." Conlin slipped and fell. The rear wheels "passed over Conlin's body, leaving him mangled and unconscious." The 37-year-old died later that afternoon.
Rescues from burning buildings in the 19th century sometimes required dangerous, nearly gymnastic, tactics. On September 29, 1896, Hook & Ladder Company 14 responded to a fire at 2365 Third Avenue. When they arrived, the fire had engulfed the first floor and spread to the second. Frederick Thompson, who occupied rooms on the fourth floor, had been asleep and was the only tenant not to escape. Two firefighters, Thomas Corrigan and John Lutz, "saw his predicament and hastened to the rescue."
They went to the top floor of the the three-story building next door. The Sun reported, "Corrigan stood with one foot on the cornice of the house and reached with the other foot to the lintel of the third story of the burning house, at the same time grasping the sill of Thompson's window." When he was certain of "the firmness of his grasp on the window sill," Corrigan threw his other arm around Thompson's waist and drew him across the void.
Corrigan straddled the cornice and lintel of two buildings to rescue the victim. The Sun, September 30, 1896 (copyright expired)
The Sun said, "When Lutz had taken Thompson in his grasp and drew him over on the roof a cheer went up from the crowd below, and the cheer was repeated when Corrigan climbed to the roof from his perilous position, and all three were safe."
The company's truck was pulled by three horses, the oldest of which was Paddy, who was always in the center. The company acquired him in 1871 when he was six years old. At the time of Corrigan's and Lutz's remarkable rescue, Paddy was "if not the oldest horse in the department, he was one of the oldest," said the New York Herald two years later.
Paddy had an unexpected best buddy, Chief, described by the newspaper as "a splendid greyhound." In 1891, Chief was brought to the station house as a puppy. The New York Herald said he "blundered" into Paddy's stall. The firefighters were alarmed, expecting "to see him kicked or trampled." Instead, "the big horse only put his head down inquiringly, and Chief licked his nose in token of good fellowship. From that time the two were fast friends." Every evening, Chief would bed down on the straw in a corner of Paddy's stall. When an alarm would ring, Chief would bark, Paddy would whinny "with all the power of his throat" and the greyhound would race through the streets next to the galloping horses.
At 4:00 on the morning of August 19, 1897, Chief began wailing. Some of the firefighters, said the New York Herald, "yelled at Chief and told him to be quiet, but he only clamored the louder." Captain Terpeny send a man down to see what was wrong. "That dog isn't carrying on that way for fun," he said. And he was right.
The article said, "The big horse was very sick and his friend had been calling for help." The FDNY's veterinarian diagnosed Paddy with cholic. The New York Herald reported:
The horse became weaker and weaker, and finally fell down. Chief stayed with him, licking his face and howling mournfully until the end, which was about 7 o'clock. Then it was with great difficulty that the men got him out of the stall.
The newspaper concluded the article saying, "There is talk of giving the horse a ceremonial burial, with Chief as principal mourner."
via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services
On February 1, 1907, the New-York Tribune reported that the station house of Hook & Ladder Company 14 would be receiving updates by architect Edward L. Middleton. The renovations, costing the equivalent of more than $700,000 today, included "new concrete and iron floors...for the apparatus and the sliding pole floor opening enlarged."
The new floors had much to do with modern motorized equipment. Hook & Ladder Company 14's speedy fire trucks greatly impressed Walter J. Albert in 1922. On the night of May 1 that year he made "a little wager" with two friends, as described by the New-York Tribune. He bet them that Engine 14 "could get from its house at 120 East 125th Street to the [alarm] box at 133d Street and Madison Avenue in three minutes." The friends took the bet and Albert pulled the alarm.
The newspaper said, "When Albert was caught near the box at 133d Street the firemen were in a mood to cripple him. It was the third time they had been called out on false alarms." The article said that Patrolman Patrick Cushen, who caught Albert, "had to protect him from the irate fireman."
At the station house, Albert confessed that he was betting on the speed of the fire engine.
"Did you win?" asked one of the detectives.
"Naw, they were two minutes slow."
By the second half of the 20th century, the personality of the congested Harlem neighborhood around the firehouse had greatly changed. City employees like policemen and firefighters were often viewed with suspicion and derision. At around 2:00 on the morning of December 27, 1961, Hook & Ladder Company 14's truck was passing a crowd outside a bar at Park Avenue and 123rd Street. Suddenly a bottle smashed against the side of the fire truck. The New York Times reported that the truck stopped "and a fight ensued."
The article said, "The street fight was broken up by an unidentified railroad detective. He drew his pistol and forced back the crowd as it pummeled the firemen." In the end, four fire fighters and one civilian were injured.
In 1975, Hook & Ladder Company 14 was relocated to 2282 Third Avenue. Its former firehouse was officially decommissioned in 2003. Napoleon Le Brun & Son's striking firehouse sat vacant and neglected for years. Then, on August 31, 2014, The Real Deal reported, "An abandoned 19th-century firehouse in East Harlem is getting a new lease on life as a cultural center."
Six years earlier, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito had saved the structure from the auction block by promising that it would be repurposed as a cultural center. The Real Deal reported, "Now the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute has been selected as the building's developer." The Daily News reported that the organization would spent $5.5 million on restoration and renovations to the building.
photograph by Steven Bornholtz
Today, the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute's website explained that it "preserves and presents African Diaspora cultures, promoting arts and culture as tools for personal transformation, community-building, and social justice."
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