Hook & Ladder Company 3 Firehouse
108 East 13th Street | also 106 East 13th Street | East Village | built 1929
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1865
A volunteer company on the site becomes Hook and Ladder Company 3
The volunteer Friendship Hook and Ladder Company No. 12 had operated from this East 13th Street address since before the Civil War. When the state legislature created the professional Metropolitan Fire Department, the company mustered in as Hook and Ladder Company 3 on September 11, 1865, one of the department's first ladder companies.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1929
A new firehouse for Ladder Company 3 opens on East 13th Street
Architect John R. Sliney designed a two-story Arts & Crafts firehouse to replace the company's Victorian-era building, torn down the year before. Mayor James J. Walker presided over the dedication on October 8, 1929, when honorary deputy chief Edward J. Kenny donated two 3,700-watt searchlight trucks in memory of his father. The renovated firehouse also became home to Water Tower No. 2 and to the battalion chief.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1936
A son is assigned to Hook and Ladder 3, where his father already serves
James H. Martin was a 30-year veteran stationed at Hook and Ladder Company 3 on East 13th Street in 1936. On September 28 the New York Post reported that his son Arthur, known as Artie, had been assigned to the same firehouse, fulfilling a boyhood wish to be a fireman like his father. The bachelor son lived with his parents in the Bronx but would now see far more of his father.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1950
A fire breaks out in the firehouse's own basement, close to its gasoline tank
In the early hours of August 31, 1950, the firemen of Hook and Ladder 3 and Water Tower 2 had to fight a fire in their own firehouse, as a Yonkers newspaper reported. The blaze, of undetermined origin, stayed in the basement, and it was put out before it reached the 550-gallon gasoline storage tank that fueled the trucks at the house.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1963
An Albanian feud ends in a fatal shooting inside the firehouse
On July 24, 1963, a feud that began years earlier in Albania reached the firehouse when one man chased another down Third Avenue and into the East 13th Street bay. Firefighter Olin Blair, on watch at the desk, saw the victim mortally wounded by a gunshot and then attacked with a knife beneath a ladder truck. Blair picked up a crowbar and told the attacker to back off, while firefighter Gustav Knoeckel lowered the bay door to block his escape. The gunman surrendered when police arrived.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1984
A plaque honors Ladder 3 and Battalion 6 members killed in the line of duty
A memorial plaque for Ladder 3 and Battalion 6 firefighters who died on duty was unveiled at the house on July 11, 1984. It went up after the son of Francis Donelon visited the firehouse. Donelon, a Hook and Ladder 3 firefighter, died on August 10, 1930, when a train hit his ladder as he fought a blaze on the Third Avenue Elevated.
“…a plaque was dedicated at the fire house as a memorial to the members of Ladder Company 3 and Battalion 6 that were killed in the line of duty…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1987
A firefighter chases a hit-and-run driver in the ladder truck
On August 31, 1987, after an incinerator fire, Firefighter Douglas C. Hantusch was hit by a van whose driver sped off as the ladder truck was being backed into the firehouse. Firefighter Lawrence Brown pursued in the 40-foot ladder truck with its lights blazing, west along 13th Street, until a double-parked truck blocked the van just west of Seventh Avenue. Brown climbed down and shut off the van's engine through its open window, then held the 20-year-old driver until police came.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 2001
Ladder Company 3 suffers heavy losses at the World Trade Center
The company answered the call to the World Trade Center's North Tower on September 11, 2001. Captain Patrick J. Brown and his crew were last seen on the 35th floor as the tower collapsed, and Ladder Company 3 took some of the heaviest losses of any FDNY company that day. Its ladder truck, wrecked in the collapse, was stored for a decade before becoming part of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in 2011.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2013
Ladder 3 firefighters build a rescue-practice wall on the firehouse roof
Ladder Company 3 firefighters put up a wooden training structure on the firehouse roof in 2013, a 12-foot wall with a window for practicing rescues. A grant from two insurance companies paid for the lumber and for new equipment in the basement gym. The Gramercy Park Block Association had nominated the company for the award, as a tribute to the members killed on September 11.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- New York City Fire Department Ladder Company 3Wikipedia
- Hook & Ladder Company 3 (Water Tower No. 2) - 108 East 13th StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
- 106 East 13th Street; 106-108 East 13th StreetVillage Preservation: East Village Building Blocks
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