Hook & Ladder Company No. 9 firehouse
209 Elizabeth Street | Nolita | built 1900
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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.
- 1844
A man dies suddenly in the Elizabeth Street house that later made way for a firehouse
Elizabeth Street was lined here with two-story wooden houses for working families. The house and lot at 209 sold at auction in 1842, and on May 10, 1844 the coroner held an inquest there on a man named Herrick, who died suddenly. The verdict was death from intemperance. The city later built a firehouse on the site of Herrick's house.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1883
N. LeBrun & Son's new firehouse gets the first brass sliding pole in New York
The city bought the site for Hook and Ladder No. 9 in 1862, and in July 1882 N. LeBrun & Son filed plans for a three-story firehouse costing $18,000. Finished within the year, it had red brick over a cast-iron base and stone bands and terra cotta tiles. Daytonian in Manhattan says its brass sliding pole, an idea from Chicago in 1878, was the first in New York City.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1884
An earthquake rattles the new firehouse, frightening the horses and rolling the billiard balls
When an earthquake shook New York on August 10, 1884, the New York Times reported that the firehouse building shook enough to scare the horses in their stalls. On the top floor, a billiard table rocked and the balls rolled around it for a few seconds. At the police Central Office nearby, officers were thrown into great excitement, and neighbors ran into the street.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1893
A lieutenant at Hook and Ladder No. 9 is sued for breach of promise and the jury awards $100
Bertha Rosenthal, who lived nearby at 129 Rivington Street, sued Lieutenant James Weiner of the company for $10,000 after he refused to acknowledge her child or marry her. Weiner denied proposing and said the baby was not his. On March 22, 1893 the jury found her story technically correct but decided her feelings were hurt only to the extent of $100, in a trial covered by The Evening World.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1948
Hook and Ladder Company 9 leaves after 87 years and Emergency Squad 2 takes the building
Daytonian in Manhattan reports that the company moved out on November 21, 1948, once the one-truck house was judged antiquated, and went to share quarters with Engine Company 33 on Great Jones Street. Emergency Squad 2 moved in that year, answering calls from drownings and building collapses to a boy with his head stuck in a fence in July 1951. In the later 20th century, the building became a bakery for La Rosa & Son Bread Co.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 2005
The former La Rosa bakery is bought, converted to a home and becomes the Elizabeth Street Gallery
After its years as a bakery, with offices on the floors where firemen once slid down the pole, the building sat graffiti-covered and unused. Elizabeth Firehouse LLC bought it in June 2005, and that August the Department of City Planning gave its approval for a single-family residence over the ground floor, with a penthouse added on the roof. The ground floor became the Elizabeth Street Gallery, selling antiques and home decor, and the La Rosa bread company's name remains on the iron frame.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Further reading
- LeBrun's 1883 Hook & Ladder Co. No. 9 -- 209 Elizabeth StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
- A long-shuttered bakery haunts Elizabeth StreetEphemeral New York
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