Eureka Hose Company No. 54 Firehouse
153 Franklin Street | Tribeca | built 1853
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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.
- 1853
The city builds a firehouse that houses a succession of fire companies
The three-story firehouse went up in 1853 on the site of an old frame dwelling, for Hose Company No. 54 (later called Eureka) and Knickerbocker Hook and Ladder Company No. 11. North River Engine Company No. 30 took it over in 1859, and Baxter Hook and Ladder Company No. 15 occupied it from 1864 to 1866. The city sold the building in 1877, and in 1884 the Beckstein family acquired it.
- 1967
The firehouse is cut down to one story and later becomes an artist's studio
After the Fire Department left, the building housed plumbing-supply and hardware merchants and an elevator company run by Fred D. Shaper. In 1967 its top two stories were demolished, leaving a single story. By the time of the designation report it was an artist's workshop and studio. The original cast-iron bay framing survives and supports part of the old brick wall.
- 2011
Dominique Strauss-Kahn moves into the converted firehouse to serve house arrest
After a 2008 purchase and a renovation of about eighteen months, the old firehouse had become a luxury townhouse with a private theater, a basement gym and a spa, but it drew no buyers or renters. Then Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a French presidential hopeful held at Rikers Island after a midtown hotel maid accused him of assault, moved in on May 25, 2011 with his wife, the journalist Anne Sinclair. He served his house arrest there.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Further reading
- From Firehouse to Luxury Prison -- No. 153 Franklin StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
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