Engine Company 27 Firehouse
173 Franklin Street | Tribeca | built 1882
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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.
- 1866
Engine Company 27 replaces North River Engine Company No. 30 at the Franklin Street site
The Fire Department had held this site since 1863-64, when an earlier firehouse was built for North River Engine Company No. 30. In 1866 Engine Company No. 27 replaced that company. The city later hired N. LeBrun & Son, a firm that designed some thirty firehouses between 1879 and 1895, to design the present house, built in 1881-82. A faded sign reading 27 ENGINE 27 still survives on the front.
- 1881
The city seeks bids for a new engine house, one of several nearly identical LeBrun designs
On May 7, 1881 the city invited proposals to build an engine house at 173 Franklin Street. Napoleon LeBrun, the Fire Department's official architect since 1879, was then designing at least four new firehouses at once, including one for Engine Company 13 on Wooster Street, so the busy firm repeated a single design. The house at 99 Wooster is a near copy. Finished in 1882, it has a cast-iron base with red brick, terra cotta and stone above.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1902
Firefighters carry two unconscious boarders out of a burning West Street house
A fire broke out early on May 30, 1902 at 209 West Street, above a saloon. After two firefighters led the Murphy family out, Captain Doonan sent Fireman John Spencer back for two boarders, the longshoremen Richard O'Meara and Elmer Jones. Spencer carried O'Meara down a flight to John Grimes, then returned for Jones, who was also unconscious on the burning top floor. Both men were reported saved.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1904
Toxic fumes from a Duane Street broom factory fire disable all of Engine 27
On March 26, 1904 a fire at Charles Plunkett's broom factory at 205 Duane Street gave off choking fumes from the chemicals used in making brooms. According to the Evening World, every man of Engine Company 27 was disabled, and twenty other firefighters who tried to rescue them were also overcome. The paper said the company had been wiped out three times in three years, with Thomas McGirr, 30, its only original member left.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1975
Engine Company 27 is decommissioned and leaves its Franklin Street house
In 1952 a city management survey listed the firehouse among buildings named for abandonment, and Fire Commissioner Jacob Grumet inspected it. The company stayed another two decades. It was decommissioned in 1975, and before the last firefighter left, someone painted "Born 1850-Closed 11-22-75" across the red truck bay door. The building later served as a welding shop, then stood vacant, and by 2002 held a gallery with a house above.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Further reading
- Engine Company 27 -- 173 Franklin StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
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