Firemen's Hall
155 Mercer Street | SoHo | built 1854
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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.
- 1854
Field & Correja design Firemen's Hall for the volunteer fire companies
The city's volunteer fire companies build a new Firemen's Hall on Mercer Street, replacing a wood-frame hall that had itself succeeded the original 1824 headquarters on Fulton Street. Architects Field & Correja design the $24,811 Italianate building, which houses Hose Company No. 5 and Hook and Ladder No. 6 on the ground floor with meeting rooms for firemen's associations above.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1871
The National Rifle Association holds one of its earliest meetings in the hall
The newly formed National Rifle Association of America holds one of its first meetings in Firemen's Hall's upper-floor meeting rooms. The building had already become a gathering place for city organizations, hosting discussions about the 1858 Crystal Palace fire and serving as a library and meeting space for volunteer firemen's groups.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1895
A ring-tailed lemur named Jenny becomes the firehouse mascot
Firemen at Mercer Street adopt a ring-tailed lemur named Jenny as the house mascot. According to firehouse lore, Jenny alerts the company to emergencies by throwing billiard balls down the stairs, becoming one of the more unusual animal mascots in the fire department's history.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1980
The Dia Art Foundation opens a Sufi mosque and gallery in the former firehouse
After the fire department vacates in 1974, the building passes through a series of arts uses. In 1980 the Dia Art Foundation opens Masjid al-Farah, a Sufi mosque, inside the former Firemen's Hall, part of Dia's program of unconventional gallery and performance spaces in SoHo lofts.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2017
Restorers complete a multi-year recreation of the hall's Italianate facade
New owner Thor Equities, which buys the building in 2013, commissions architecture firm PKSB to restore the long-altered facade. By 2017 the team has recreated the carved 'Firemen's Hall' panel, pediment, and other Italianate details erased by renovations between the 1890s and the 1970s.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Further reading
- 155 Mercer StreetWikipedia
- Firemen's Hall No. 155 Mercer StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
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