Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre

304 West 47th Street | Hell's Kitchen | built 1888

Open on the map4 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1888

    September

    Napoleon LeBrun designs a firehouse for Engine Company 54

    Architect Napoleon LeBrun & Sons complete a Queen Anne and Romanesque firehouse for Engine Company 54, a near copy of firehouses the firm built a few years earlier on Henry Street and East 104th Street. The red-brick building features cast-iron columns with sunflower capitals and terra cotta ornament.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1896

    April 7

    Captain Hayes receives a Tiffany trumpet for 30 years of service

    Engine Company 54's Captain William F. Hayes is presented with a silver fire trumpet from Tiffany & Co. marking his thirtieth year fighting fires from the West 47th Street firehouse. Presentation trumpets like this one were ceremonial honors, prized more as heirlooms than as tools actually used at fires.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1977

    Miriam Colon turns the empty firehouse into a theater

    After Engine Company 54 leaves the building, actress and director Miriam Colon leads a $2 million renovation that converts the vacant firehouse into a 194-seat theater with a proscenium stage, home to the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. The company preserves the 1888 exterior while rebuilding the interior for live performance.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 2008

    The city designates the former firehouse a landmark

    New York City designates the former Engine Company 54 firehouse, by then decades into its life as the 47th Street Theatre, a landmark. The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre continues to own and operate the 196-seat Off-Broadway venue inside it into the following decades.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 46 buildings with stories in Hell's Kitchen