The Lost Clinton Hall - Beekman and Nassau Streets

A public pump sits opposite Clinton Hall.  The fence surrounds the churchyard of the Old Brick Church.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

Established in 1820 and opened on February 1821 at 49 Fulton Street, the Mercantile Library Association afforded a reading room and library for young clerks just beginning their business careers.  In 1829, its members established the Clinton Hall Association (named for beloved New York City Mayor and Governor DeWitt Clinton, who died the previous year) to erect a formidable new building.  The site chosen was formerly occupied by the 1761 theater in which Hamlet was first staged in the United States.  At the southwest corner of Beekman and Nassau Streets, it faced the 1767 Old Brick Church.  Scribner's Monthly would remark decades later, "Beekman street was pretty well up town in those days."

The association hired 26-year-old architect Alexander Jackson Davis to design the multi-use structure.  (Davis partnered with Ithiel Town, a respected and well-established architect, that same year.  Although it would make sense that Clinton Hall was a collaboration of the pair, only Davis is listed as its designer.)  

On July 21, 1829, The Evening Post reported on the cornerstone laying ceremony.  It began at noon with "a procession composed of the Trustees and the Clergymen, who were to officiate,...the subscribers, the Mercantile Library Association, and the members of other public Institutions" from City Hall to the site.  The stone was laid "in the midst of a large assembly of citizens" by Isaac Carow, vice president of the Chamber of Commerce, and Alexander Jackson Davis.

Dedicated on November 2, 1830, Davis's Greek Revival design successfully disguised the fact that the structure was, in fact, two separate buildings.  The New York Annual Register of 1831 explained, "The cost of the building was about $50,000, independent of Clinton Hotel, the property of Philip Hone, Esq. which is under the same roof, fronting on Beekman-street, and cost about the same as the Hall."  (Not coincidentally, Philip Hone was the chairman of the Mercantile Library Association.)  The combined construction cost would translate to about $3.5 million in 2026.  

The New-York Annual Register, 1831 (copyright expired)

The granite base was girded by a low flight of stone stairs.  It contained stores--six in the Clinton Hall portion and two in the hotel--that provided income.  The upper three floors were faced in brick "stuccoed in imitation of stone," said the New-York Annual Register.  Calling it a "noble and substantial edifice," the register said Clinton Hall was "dedicated to Literature, Science, and the Arts."  Within the upper floors were the Mercantile Library's large lecture room, library,  and reading room.  (The lecture room could be rented by outside groups.)

Philip Hone, who served as mayor from 1826 to 1827, hired Joseph M. Bispham to run his hotel.  On October 20, 1830, The Evening Post reported, "This elegant and commodious establishment is not completed...We understand Mr. Bispham is especially qualified to discharge the duties of the Host, and that his gentlemanly manners will render Clinton Hotel a place of fashionable resort and temporary residence."  The article added, "Its connexion [sic] with Clinton Hall will always preserve it as a conspicuous point in the public eye."

The Clinton Hall Bookstore was among the first of the commercial tenants.  The New-York Annual Register, 1831 (copyright expired)

In addition to housing the Mercantile Library, Clinton Hall was designed to accommodate long-term tenants.  Perhaps the first was the National Academy of Design, which moved in in 1830.  Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly said that starting in 1831, the academy's annual exhibitions "were held in much more commodious and altogether more suitable rooms, on the third floor of the Mercantile Library, in Clinton Hall."  The article reported that the National Academy of Design paid an annual rent of $500 (or $18,000 today) "for these apartments."

On November 11, 1831, The Evening Post noted that the National Academy would be opening its "school of the Antique," saying, "The instructors will be the gentlemen of the council."

from the collection of the New York Public Library

To pay for the building's construction, the directors sold Clinton Hall Stock.  But, "the sickness which shortly after prevailed in the city," as worded by The Evening Post, abruptly halted the fund-raising.  The city was ravaged by a cholera epidemic that took the lives of between 3,500 and 3,515 New Yorkers.  Roughly one third of the city's residents fled northward.  On January 9, 1832, The Evening Post reported, "Eighteen thousand dollars yet remain to be subscribed for, ere the Board of Trustees can proceed with vigor to the attainment of the magnificent ends aimed by this institution."

But at the time of the article, things were returning to normal.  On the same page was a notice that, "A course of lectures is to be commenced to-morrow evening, at Clinton Hall...The subject is Political Economy."

New York University's 1916 Annual Catalogue would recall its early years: "The work began with instruction in the Undergraduate College with special courses in Mathematics and Physical Science in the fall of 1832, the classes being held in Clinton Hall."

Although slavery was abolished in New York City in 1827, the city's economic dependence on the South placed its abolitionists overwhelmingly in the minority.  That was vividly shown in a passage in The American Metropolis:

To Tammany belongs the honor of the first victory over abolitionists in New York City.  In 1833 abolitionists attempted to hold their first meeting at Clinton Hall (Nassau and Beekman Streets).  It was prevented by a riotous crowd, which promptly celebrated its victory by adjourning to Tammany Hall and passing resolutions denouncing abolition.

Publisher Daniel Appleton established a bookstore in the Clinton Hotel side of the building.  It sold his own publications as well as books imported from England.   

James Gordon Bennett, the publisher of the New York Herald, rented offices in Clinton Hall as early as 1836.  That year the fiery publisher began a campaign "in favor of the great mass of the tenantry of New York, against the grasping landlords," in his words.  He was served an eviction notice in February 1837.

Bennett's editorial in the New York Herald on February 8 said that he had paid his quarterly rent in advance and that his eviction was "in consequence" of his campaign for renters.

I have every reason to believe that the Clinton Hall Association, a species of Real Estate Monopoly, composed as it is of speculators and fanatics, have determined to violate the implied engagements of their Agent with me, and to turn me out, as a punishment for my manifold transgressions towards the cause of the rich and powerful.

Upscale hotels were constant targets of burglars and the Clinton Hotel was no exception.  On November 23, 1843, the National Anti-Slavery Standard titled an article "Something New" and reported that two thieves, Richard Martin and George Fisher, had been arrested "for stealing wearing apparel from Clinton hotel."  They had an innovative burglary tool, "an instrument for turning a key outside, which has been turned by a person inside, and left in the door."

from the collection of the New York Public Library

By the mid-1840s, the Clinton Hotel was operated by Simon and Warren Leland.  (The brothers would later conceive of hotel chains.)  The problem of hotel thievery became personal to him in 1847.  On December 8 The Evening Post reported that William Seiler, an employee in the hotel, had been arrested for "stealing a frock coat from Warren Leland."  The young man had been hired four months earlier and during that time, "coats, &c. have been taken to the amount of $100."

In July 1848, The Institution for the Savings of Merchants' Clerks, a bank for young businessmen, opened on the ground floor.  The institution had been incorporated just three months earlier.  It would become the Union Square Savings Bank in 1905.

The Clinton Hotel hosted wealthy Americans and distinguished foreigners.  On June 21, 1851, for instance, The Evening Post reported that the entourage of "Count Villaneva, Intendent General of the Island of Cuba," were occupying rooms here.  Included were "Count Villanova, the Count's private Secretaries--Colonel Pinillas, General Carrillo--Colonel Pasejo and family, Post Captain Amero, Colonel Delango, and their servants."

At the time, the end of the line for the hotel and the Mercantile Library's occupancy in Clinton Hall was nearing.  On June 9, 1854, the New York Herald reported, "The Mercantile Library for several years past has been much cramped for room in its quarters in Beekman street, and after the urgent solicitations of its members, the Clinton Hall Association decided to purchase a more favorable site for the institution."  The association purchased the Astor Place Opera House on Astor Place.  The Mercantile Library Association's annual report in January 1855 said that the move from Clinton Hall was effected on June 8, 1854.

Two years later, in February 1856, a days-long auction of the furnishings of the Clinton Hotel began.  Hundreds of lots, including "a very large assortment of China and Glass Ware," mahogany dining tables and "several very large size Oil Paintings, very valuable," were sold.  The New York Times reported, "The Clinton Hotel property has been purchased by the Park Bank Company for $115,000."  The article said the bank would "fit up the old house temporarily."

The renovated Astor Place Opera House was renamed Clinton Hall.  Confusingly, the Beekman Street building retained the name, as well.  The downtown building was converted to offices, many of which were occupied by publishing firms.  Ironically, one of the new tenants was office of the Anti-Slavery Association.  

Other tenants in the 1860s were W. H. Bidwell, publisher of Bidwell's American Theological Review and W. H. Bidwell's Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature; the newspaper Independent, and Rev. John Marsh's Journal of the American Temperance Union.  One non-publishing tenant was financier and president of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, Cyrus Field, here as early as 1863. 

In 1881, banker Eugene Kelly purchased and demolished Clinton Hall.  On its site, he commissioned Silliman & Farnsworth to design a ten-story office building, the Temple Court Building.

King's Handbook of New York City, 1892 (copyright expired)

The Lost Beekman Tavern - 64 Beekman Street

 

Arthur Hosking photographed the venerable building on June 27, 1921, simultaneously capturing a modern automobile and a horse-drawn delivery truck.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

On June 28, 1832 Thomas T. Storm advertised, "For Sale, Lease or To Let:  The three-story brick House and Lot, No. 64 Beekman, corner Gold street.  Store occupied as a Grocery, all in complete order."  Storm's house-and-store building had been built five years earlier, its brick-faced facade trimmed in brownstone.  A high staircase led to the residential portion above the store.

Robert O. Thompson now took over the grocery store.  Living with his family upstairs in 1836 were two working class boarders, Gurden Halsey, a mason; and carpenter Andrew Carlton.  

John H. Schwarte purchased the building and moved his grocery business in by 1845.  He and his family lived above the store, along with an employee, Philip Johnson.   The John H. Schwarte & Co. grocery doubled, in fact, as a saloon, as reflected in an advertisement on May 18, 1853:

For Sale--A Grocery and Liquor Store, down town, in a good situation for business.  Persons calling immediately at the grocery, 64 Beekman street, will be treated with on liberal terms.  If not sold on or before Tuesday, 24th inst., will be sold by public auction.

In fact, Schwarte did not sell the business.  Instead, Jurgen H. Schwarte, presumably his son, took it over.  And by 1857 he had a second store at 17 Roosevelt Street.  The family continued to take in a boarder, and that year it was John Donnelly, a carman (or dray driver) and volunteer fireman.

It appears the Schwarte family sold 64 Beekman Street around 1859 to Laura M. Emmet.  That year Luke Otten took over the business, who continued to list it as "grocery" and "liquor store."  But when John Budelman rented the building around 1870, he focused on the "beer saloon" business.

Budelman was born in Bremen, Germany in 1837.  He had served with the 14th and 23rd Infantries as a commissary sergeant.  After the war, in 1867, he became a naturalized citizen and married Anna Margaretha Doscher.  The tradition of boarders stopped with the Budelmans, no doubt because they had seven children.  It was possibly Budelman who named the saloon the Old Beekman Halfway House.

John Budelman renewed his lease on the building for another five years in 1886.  Three years into that lease, however, in October 1889 he died.  

Another German immigrant, Gustav Adolph Lillienthal took over the lease and would remain here for decades.  Born in Otterndorf, Germany in March 1858, Lillienthal had come to America in 1872.  In 1884 he had become a naturalized citizen.  Like the Budelmans', his was a large family.  He and his wife, the former Sarah Christine Hennessy had eight children.

Lillienthal tweaked the name of the saloon to The Old Beekman.  In 1893, A Souvenir of New York's Liquor Interests noted it had "been directed by him with the most substantial success."  The article said:

The store occupied is excellently fitted up, the bar fixtures being of walnut in neat design, and chairs, tables, free-lunch counter, and all conveniences have been provided for the benefit of customers.  Lager from the Consumers' Brewing Co.'s brewery is kept on draught, also Beadelston & Woerz' ales and porter, and the finest wines, liquors and cigars are served to patrons.

Stefano Dondero received a permit to operate a fruit stand on the sidewalk in 1897.  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

Three decades after he signed his first lease, Lillienthal was still in charge.  Prohibition had prompted another name change--to the Old Beekman Luncheonette.  It was described by Christopher Morley in his 1922 Plum Pudding.  Saying that he was originally on his way to Hanover Square, he was waylaid "on viewing the agreeable old house at the corner of Gold Street--'The Old Beekman, Erected 1827,' once called the Old Beekman Halfway House, but now the Old Beekman Luncheonette--no hungry man in his senses could pass without tarrying."  He continued:

A flavour of comely and respectable romance was apparent in this pleasant place, with its neat and tight-waisted white curtains in the upstairs windows and an outdoor stairway leading up to the second floor.  Inside, at a table in a cool, dark corner, we dealt with hot dogs and cloudy cider in a manner beyond criticism.  The name Luncheonette does this fine tavern serious injustice: there is nothing of the feminine or the soda fountain about it: it is robust, and we could see by the assured bearing of some well-satisfied habitués that it is an old landmark in that section.

Prohibition turned the tavern into a luncheonette, hawking sandwiches and pies.  (The exquisite Federal doorway of the former house next door survived.)  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

Following the repeal of Prohibition, The Old Beekman took back its old name, now operating as a bar and lunchroom.  After running the business for half a century, Gustav Adolph Lillienthal died at the age of 81 on October 3, 1939.

Once again a tavern in 1939, the staircase to the upper floors was removed.  photograph by Beecher Ogden, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

While the familiar Old Beekman Tavern continued serving brokers and businessmen, in 1958 David Rockefeller helped form the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association, Inc.  The group's goal was to rehabilitate the Financial District.  The "physical redevelopment" the group endorsed was essentially urban renewal.

The association endorsed seven major projects in November 1963, including the Southbridge Towers that would erase blocks of buildings, including the 136-year-old Old Beekman Tavern.  The massive, five-building project was completed in 1971.  The corner where the old landmark stood no longer exists.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post.

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The 1858 Meriden Britannia Co. Bldg - 45 Beekman Street

 

As early as 1831 the family of Benjamin Hallsted lived in the comfortable house at No. 45 Beekman Street, between William and Gold Street.  He listed his blind making shop at the same address, using the small building in the rear yard for that purpose.  By the mid-1840's he had moved his family to Sixth Avenue, and while he continued his business in the rear his former home was operated as a boarding house.

By 1853 Hallsted had taken his son, James C., into the business, renaming it Benjamin Hallsted & Sons.  He was leasing the main house to Jane E. Bromley, a widow.  A typical advertisement read:

Boarding--45 Beekman Street--A few single gentlemen or gentlemen and their wives can be accommodated with pleasant rooms and board, on very reasonable terms.  Also, transient boarders by the day or week.

Her boarders throughout the next few years tended to work nearby--like Patrick Daly, whose bookstore was at No. 82 Fulton Street and policeman Patrick McGrath who worked in City Hall.

That was all about to change.  In 1857 Hallsted demolished the two buildings on his property and erected a modern loft and store building.  The 23-foot wide structure was five stories tall and faced in white marble above the storefront.  Its Italianate style details, like the molded lintels over the segmentally arched openings, would have been equally at home on an up-to-date dwelling as on a commercial building.  

Hallsted's main tenants were the Meriden Brittania Co. and its related Meriden Cutlery Co.  The firm had been founded five years earlier in Meriden, Connecticut where the factory was located.  Its glittering teapots, coffee services and flatware were made of polished Britannia metal, a pewter alloy that imitated fine silver.

The elaborate Victorian designs could be marketed at more affordable prices than sterling silver.

A smaller tableware firm, H. H. Beadle Cutlery, was also an initial tenant, as was the stationery store of Henry Jeroliman, where his son Isaac L., had a position as clerk.

Another substantial tenant arrived in 1859.  L. T. Valentine & Co. was a dealer in paper goods.  Run by Louis T. and William J. Valentine, it dealt in "a large assortment of all kinds of paper," but specialized in paper bags.  An advertisement in 1863 offered:

To Grocers, Druggists, Bakers,

Tea and Coffee Dealers and Others,

Time Trouble and Money Saved, 

by using the

PATENT MACHINE-MADE PAPER BAGS

Which entirely supersede the home-made article.

A large supply of the various sizes on hand.

The Meriden Britannia Company grew at an astounding rate and in 1870 left No. 45 Beekman Street.  An advertisement in the New York Herald on April 20 that year offered the store, basement and sub-cellar for rent "in fine marble building."

In 1873 the three tenants were Vannest Brothers, which dealt in saddlery and coach hardware (operated by Frank R. and Jacob J. Vannest); Robert Burnet's book store; and Edward Chamberlin & Co., printers and envelope makers.

The firms would have made use of a "hatch" to hoist goods up and down through the building.  In the years before freight elevators were common a shaftway equipped with pulleys and ropes solved the problem.  But the open shafts were dangerous and repeatedly resulted in accidents.  On September 3, 1874 The Evening Telegram reported "Henry James, colored, a porter, of Brooklyn, fell through the hatchway of No. 45 Beekman street from the fifth to the first floor, and had both his legs broken."

The three tenants remained for years.  By 1878 Edward Chamberlin & Co. had reorganized as Chamberlin, Whitmore & Co.  That year it was hiring, looking for "an experienced designer and stone engraver on fine work" and "a strictly first class foreman for job work; must be a skilled compositor."  It was still in the building on November 20, 1885 when The Aegis and Intelligencer said "This firm are importers and manufacturers of the finest papers and cards known to the trade."

Within a year, however the Hallsted family would have a new set of tenants.  In 1886 the wholesale dealers of paper and cardboard, J. E. Linden, had space.  Like Chamberlin, Whitmore & Co. before them, they also handled printing.  An advertisement that year touted "ruled printers' blanks, job ruling of all kinds, new designs in Ball programmes, tickets, etc."  The firm was looking for a specialized employee in December 1890.  Its help-wanted ad sought "a feignt line ruler."

Around 1894 James C. Hallsted sold the building to tenant Myrick Plummer.  The principal in M. Plummer & Co., a wholesale paper dealer, he was described by The Press on December 6, 1894.  "His hair is snow white and he is 59 years old; yet Mr. Plummer's step is elastic, his form erect and stately, and his eyes are clear and bright."

Plummer was born in Gardiner, Maine and had entered the paper business in 1865.  His success was reflected in his sumptuous mansion at No. 18 East 68th Street, steps from Fifth Avenue and Central Park.

In March 1900 Plummer suffered a stroke and was forced to retire.  Two months later, on May 17, a second, more severe stroke, claimed his life.  On reporting his death the New-York Tribune called him a "wholesale paper merchant of prominence."  His wife, Mary Emma, took title to the Beekman Street building.

M. Plummer & Co. continued under the direction of Plummer's former partner of 20 years, Watson F. Munger.  Like Plummer, he was from Maine, born in Windsor in 1841.  Less than a year after Plummer's death, Munger died in his home in Brooklyn on April 26, 1901 at the age of 60.  It signaled the end of M. Plummer & Co.

The building continued to be home to paper and printing firms.  H. C. Hulbert & Co., papers, moved in and by 1904 Basset & Sutphin, printers, was in the building.  Mary Plummer sold the building that year.  It changed hands three times before February 1905 when Stephen Caplin, the head of the Union Card & Paper Co., purchased the property.

A large blade sign announced The Union Card & Paper Co. in the 1940's.  NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Unlike all of the previous firms, for decades to come The Union Card & Paper Co. would be the only occupant of the building.  An annual marketing tool was the complimentary pocket calendar it sent to its repeat customers.  On December 21, 1912 The Highland Democrat reported "The Union Card and Paper Company, of 45 Beekman street, New York, have send out to their patrons a handsome diary for 1913.  The book is bond in red leather and lettered in gold...In addition to the regular pages found in all diaries, there are several additional pages for the use of the busy man which will be appreciated."

In 1976 a renovation to the venerable marble building resulted in one apartment per floor above the store level.  A subsequent update completed in 2002 increased the number to two apartments on each floor.  The white marble has been painted white and the storefront given a modern but sympathetic remake.

photographs by the author

The 1903 Engine Co. No. 32 House (today Engine 6) - 49 Beekman Street

 

In the first years following the end of the Civil War the Second Precinct Police station house stood at No. 49 Beekman Street, between William and Gold Streets.  By the mid 1880's it had been converted to city offices, home to the City Public Administrator and Corporate Attorney.

At the time Engine Company 32 operated from John Street, but its facility became obsolete by the turn of the century.  In June 1902 the architectural firm of Horgan & Slattery filed plans for a three-story and attic "brick and stone wagon house for the Fire Department."  The projected cost was $35,000, equal to just over $1 million today.

The Fire Department's official architect since 1880, Napoleon LeBrun, had died the previous year.  The more than 40 structures his firm designed for the department set a high bar, putting handsome design on equal footing with functionality.  

Horgan & Slattery met the challenge with its Beaux Arts style design for Engine Company No. 32.  The rusticated base was decorated with a carved, stylized Greek key frieze, interrupted by a large keystone and two voissoirs.  They upheld an intermediate cornice and entablature which announced the Engine Company's name.  The brick-faced midsection was dominated by a two-story elliptical arch framed in stone.  It terminated in deeply recessed spandrels which overflowed with carved ornamentation.  The flanking piers were decorated with French style cartouches and stone panels.  Above the bracketed cornice the top floor took the form of a copper-clad mansard.

In 1906 34-year Thomas Lennon joined the department.  He lived on Staten Island where he had been a volunteer firefighter.  He had made his living as a stenographer in a bank, but always wanted to be a professional firefighter.  When offered an assignment on Staten Island, he asked to be sent to a Manhattan house instead.  Less than a year later, on January 6, 1907, he was among the nine men of Engine Company 32 responding to fire in a paper warehouse on Roosevelt Street (replaced by the FDR Drive beginning in 1929).   They were joined by other companies as the inferno worsened.

It was a massive blaze, fueled by the enormous stock of paper throughout the building.   Lennon was on the fourth floor when a "back draught of smothering smoke," as described by The Evening Post, forced the men out.  Then Lennon realized that one man, Battalion Chief O'Connor, was missing.  "Lennon climbed back through the window from the fire escape, and felt about in the darkness until he came across O'Connor's prostrate form.  He carried his chief to the ground and helped place him in the hands of the surgeons," said the article.

The firefighters who had been battling on the fourth floor returned there.  At some point Acting Chief Binns, concerned about the stability of the structure, ordered the men out.  The Evening Post reported "They tarried a moment, when the order came, and, as they were groping their way down to the third floor, the floor above, burdened by the water-soaked rolls of paper, suddenly collapsed, carrying them down."

One of the men, Fireman Quinn, caught John J. C. Siefert by the arm.  He held him tightly, but "as the floor fell, Seifert was torn away from his grasp."  A policeman and firefighter were able to find Quinn, now unconscious, and carry him to the street.  When he came to, he insisted on going back into the building.  "I know where Dan is," he shouted, referring to Daniel I. Campbell, "I could hear a voice down in the pile saying 'Thirty-two.'"

When it became evident that some of the Company 32's men had perished, the Chief sent the remaining members back to the station house while the other companies worked on.  Three of their members were not with them, John Siefert, Daniel Campbell and Thomas Lennon.

Somehow Lennon's wife had gotten word of the fire and arrived at the scene.  The Evening Post said "the sight of her urged the firemen to renewed efforts, if such a thing were possible."  At 10:00 the following morning Lennon's body was the first to be discovered.  "They found it on the second floor.  It was evident that he had been killed by a blow on the head."  

As is the case today, the work of the Fire Department was not always about fires.  On the morning of January 26, 1908 a policeman rushed into the firehouse, saying that a man was being crushed by an elevator in the Raymond Building nearby at No. 133 Fulton Street.  Willy Altkin had fallen when getting off the elevator, which then descended, crushing him against the floor.  Five firefighters ran to the scene "with crowbars and axes, [and] tore the framework away from the elevator door, and lifted the injured man out."  Altkin was taken to the Hudson Street Hospital with multiple fractures.

The firehouse was the scene of a somewhat historic ceremony on March 7, 1920.  The Daily News reported "The time-honored ceremony of the New York Fire Department of conferring the 'white hat,' indicative of the rank of battalion chief on each new holder of that office, took place at the headquarters of Engine Co. No. 32, 49 Beekman street, when Joseph O'Hanlon, youngest battalion chief, received the token of rank from acting Battalion Chief George T. McAleer."  

Joseph O'Hanlon (left) receives his white hat in the station house.  Daily News, March 8, 1920 (copyright expired)  

O'Hanlon, who was 36-years old, had joined the department in 1907 when, according to The New York Times years later, "according to legend, 'the men were made of iron and the hydrants of wood.'"  He would go on to a distinguished career, being promoted to Assistant Chief in 1936.  He would devise the departments pension system, the "three-platoon" system, and reduce firefighters' hours from 86 to 46 per week.

It was not his bravery nor firefighting skills that landed Fireman Richard Pecoraro's name in the newspapers in 1960.  It was his political passion.  The 27-year old bachelor was greatly disturbed by the Castro regime in Cuba.  Although firefighters were not permitted to leave the city for more than 72 hours without permission, he secretively traveled to Cuba in August for what he later described to department officials as a "little long weekend."  It was his second trip and he had managed to keep the first one secret.  This time would be different.

He explained to a reporter "It was my hobby or idea to go down and explain to the people my ideas as an American.  I felt it might help to get rid of the government."  That government did not appreciate his efforts.  He was arrested and spent 20 days in jail, unable to communicate with his superiors in the fire department.

On August 30 the Daily News reported "He finally got back to Engine Co. 32 at 49 Beekman St., on August 22, but found he had already been suspended."  He appeared before a hearing during which he "pleaded guilty to making a false statement with intent to deceive, leaving the city for more than 72 hours without permission, failing to notify his commander of inability to report and being absent without permission for almost 22 days."

Ardent political activism cost Richard Pecoraro his job.  photo by Nick Peterson, Daily News, August 30, 1960

Despite the bad experience, Pecoraro was undaunted in his hopes to make change.  He told a reporter he "wants to go back if he can stay out of jail," saying "I feel I can still do something there."  The Daily News reported "Deputy Commissioner Albert S. Pacetta indicated he will get his wish.  Pacetta, who presided at the fireman's hearing, said he will recommend his dismissal from the department."

On November 8, 1972 Fire Commissioner Robert O. Lowery announced that six engine companies would be discontinued, among them Engine Company No. 32.   Its station house of seven decades briefly became home to Ladder Company 10 before Engine Company 6 moved in.  

Still in residence today, Engine Company 6 placed its own number over the 1903 carved "32" and painted the bay doors with a vibrant mural of a tiger, the company's symbol.

photographs by the author