Harlem Fire Watchtower
18 Mt Morris Park West | East Harlem | built 1855
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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.
- 1857
The Mount Morris watch tower goes into service on Snake Hill
In 1855 the city hired James Bogardus to design a fire watch tower on the rocky rise once called Snake Hill, and Julius H. Kroehl was contracted to carry out the plans. The octagonal, four-story cast-iron tower was finished in 1857. The first bell-man was Christopher Sieman, who led a crew of two working eight-hour tours so that the lookout never went unmanned.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1858
A tower watchman is dismissed after a bad $20 bill and a bet on the mayor's election
Hugh Masterson was one of Sieman's bell-ringers, appointed just before the 1857 mayoral election. The New-York Tribune reported on January 7, 1858 that he was charged with betting $20 that Mayor Tiemann would lose, paying with a bad $20 bill, and refusing to make good. The mayor decided to remove him, ending a short stint as a ringer.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1863
Watchman James McCusker cracks the tower bell sounding the alarm for a fire at Barnum's circus
James McCusker, who succeeded Sieman in 1860 at a $1,000 yearly salary, later recalled that in 1863 he saw flames at Barnum's circus in Elm Park and rang the alarm. By the second stroke of the fourth round he noticed the bell had cracked. The Fire Commissioners put up a replacement three months afterward, one-quarter the size of the original.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1878
Residents insist the tower bell keep ringing after watch towers are discontinued
The city's fire watch towers were discontinued after 1878. In Mount Morris Park, however, neighbors insisted on keeping the daily bell, so a member of the local firehouse went on ringing it at 9 a.m. and noon for years afterward. The Landmarks Preservation Commission later called the tower the only one of its type left in the city.
“Fire watch towers were discontinued after 1878, but the bell in the Mount Morri Park Tower rang at 9 a.m. and noon for years afterward…”
- 1903
Residents protest at a Board of Aldermen meeting to keep the old tower bell
In late 1903 the Fire Department told the Park Department that sending a fireman to ring the bell three times a day was wasteful and that the bell had outlived its usefulness. The Evening World reported that people around the park did not want to lose it. Residents voiced strong objections at a Board of Aldermen meeting on December 4, and a storm of protest followed from neighbors and admirers of the old landmark.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1967
The Landmarks Commission designates the cast-iron watch tower
On July 12, 1967 the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Watch Tower in Mount Morris Park. The commission praised its open cast-iron structure of three tiers of fluted columns topped by a small eight-sided lantern, with a large alarm bell at the second-floor level and a spiral stair. It called the tower the last survivor of the city's cast-iron fire towers.
“The Mount Morri Park cast iron Watch Tower is the only one of its type remaining in New York City.”
- 2019
The restored watchtower reopens after a $4 million community campaign
Decades of weather and neglect left the tower rusting, with its copper roof gone and many interior steps missing. In 2013 neighborhood groups and the Parks Department set out to raise $4 million, led by Valerie Jo Bradley. Starting in late 2014 the crew disassembled the structure for restoration, and the tower reopened to visitors in December 2019.
“The tower reopened to visitors in December 2019.”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Harlem Fire WatchtowerWikipedia
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