Fire House, Hook and Ladder 17
341 East 143rd Street | Mott Haven | built 1907
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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.
- 1877
Hook and Ladder 17 moves into a rented brick stable on this lot
Ladder 17 was created in 1874, when the city annexed this part of the Bronx and disbanded the volunteer J. & L. Mott Ladder 2. In 1877 the company rented a four-story brick stable here, then numbered 589 East 143rd Street. By 1891 it had twelve men, two horses and a roller-frame truck with a 50-foot extension ladder, and that year it fought 60 of the 158 fires in the lower Bronx.
- 1907
Ladder 17 returns to a new two-bay firehouse built on its old site
While the old stable was replaced, the company worked out of 358 Alexander Avenue from April 1906 to September 1907. The new building had two bays, leaving room for a second section, Ladder 17-2, organized on March 1, 1907. That second unit was disbanded in 1915. Apart from the construction period, the company had stayed on this site for more than 120 years when the Landmarks Preservation Commission studied it in 2000.
“…moving out only from April 1906 to September 1907, while the current firehouse was under construction. During that period the company worked out of 358 Alexander Avenue…”
- 1907
Michael J. Garvin, the Bronx's first buildings commissioner, designs the firehouse
Garvin, born in Morrisania, was also the borough's first Under-Sheriff and is best known for the Bronx County Courthouse. His three-bay facade is framed by wide rusticated piers and a broad stone cornice, with carved oval disks and oak-leaf swags over the second-story windows. A frieze spells out "Hook & Ladder 17," and a bronze plaque over the door names the fire department personnel at the time of construction.
- 1948
Engine Company 60 moves into the firehouse and joins Ladder 17
From its founding on June 1, 1931, Rescue Company 3 used the firehouse's second bay. When the rescue unit moved elsewhere in 1948, Engine Company 60, organized in 1895, relocated to 341-343 East 143rd Street. The engine and ladder companies have shared the building ever since.
- 1970
Firefighters of Engine 60 and Ladder 17 band together as "the Green Berets"
In 1970 the members of the two companies took the name "the Green Berets" as an identifying emblem, worn when they marched in parades. The same year the department revived the second ladder section, Ladder 17-2, which ran until 1974 while the South Bronx was seeing a great many fires.
“…joined with the members of Ladder Company 17 in 1970 to form "the Green Berets," an identifying symbol used by the company and worn during parades.”
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