Fire Engine Company 55

363 Broome Street | Little Italy | built 1900

Open on the map4 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1. 1898

   July 13

   R. H. Robertson files plans for a new Engine 55 firehouse on Broome Street

   Architect R. H. Robertson submitted plans for the Broome Street firehouse on July 13, 1898, with a brick and Indiana limestone facade and a hose tower rising above it. The estimated cost was $25,000, not counting the lot. The ground-floor interiors were to have Guastavino arches and glazed brick tiles, and the building was finished in March 1899.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

2. 1899

   June 6

   Engine 55 begins service from its new Broome Street station

   The widening of Elm Street forced Engine Company 55 out of its first firehouse, and in July 1898 the Board of Fire Commissioners had the city's money moved from a Mulberry Street lot to the Broome Street site. Service from the new house began on June 6, 1899, with a crew of sixteen and four horses, a pair for the steam engine and a pair for the hose wagon. The company answered 319 alarms in 1903.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

3. 1919

   January 10

   Wesley Williams, the department's third Black firefighter, is assigned to Engine 55

   Wesley Williams joined the New York Fire Department on January 10, 1919, and was assigned to Engine Company 55. He was the third African American to join the department. He went on to become its first Black officer and helped found the Vulcan Society, the fraternal group of Black firefighters, in 1940.

   Source: Wikipedia

4. 1927

   September

   Wesley Williams of Engine 55 becomes the Fire Department's first Black officer

   In September 1927 Fireman Wesley Williams of Engine 55 was called in to see Fire Commissioner John J. Dorman and was promoted to lieutenant on September 15, making him the department's first Black supervisor. He kept rising and retired on May 27, 1952, as a battalion chief, then the highest-ranking Black firefighter in the country.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

• Fire Engine Company 55 -- 363 Broome StreetDaytonian in Manhattan

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