Engine Company 252

617 Central Avenue | Bushwick | built 1896

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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. 1895

    Brooklyn buys a 25-by-100-foot lot on Central Avenue for a new Bushwick fire company

    In 1895 Brooklyn organizes four new fire companies and has fifteen new firehouses under construction. For Engine Company 52, in fast-growing southern Bushwick, the city buys a plot 25 feet wide and 100 feet deep in the middle of the Central Avenue blockfront between Schaeffer and Van Voorhees Streets. Van Voorhees is now Decatur Street, and Parfitt Brothers are hired to design the firehouse the next year.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1896

    Parfitt Brothers design a Flemish Revival firehouse with a scrolled gable and a carved lintel

    The firehouse is the fourth commission from the Brooklyn Fire Department for the Parfitt Brothers. It is built of brick and red Lake Superior sandstone with terra-cotta trim, and a scrolled Flemish gable rises at the front. A carved lintel over the ground story shows the engine company's name, the year 1896, shields, and the letters BFD for the Brooklyn Fire Department.

    “The intricate carved lintel above the ground story incorporates shields, the name of the engine company, the date of 1896, and "BFD," the initials of the Brooklyn Fire Department.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1897

    April 1

    Engine Company 52 opens its Central Avenue firehouse, praised in the press as a model of its kind

    The firehouse formally opens on April 1, 1897. The ground floor holds a steam fire engine, a four-hose wagon and the horses, the second floor has the foreman's office and sleeping rooms, and the third floor has a day room with a combined pool and billiard table. The press describes it as a model of its kind.

    “Engine Company 52 was formally opened on April 1, 1897. Described in the press as "a model of its kind…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1898

    The firehouse stands alone on its blockfront as Bushwick's building boom spreads out from the elevated line

    Speculative building surges in Bushwick in the 1890s after the Broadway elevated opens, mostly wooden rowhouses and tenements that spread northeast from the line. The new firehouse, though, stands in isolation at first. In 1898 it is the only building on the Central Avenue blockfront between Schaeffer and Decatur Streets.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  5. 1898

    January 1

    Consolidation turns Engine Company 52 into Engine Company 152, and in 1913 into Engine Company 252

    When the City of Brooklyn joins Greater New York on January 1, 1898, its Fire Department becomes part of the New York City department. To avoid duplicate numbers, every Brooklyn company gets a "1" in front of its number, so Engine 52 becomes Engine 152. In 1913 Brooklyn and Queens companies are renumbered again with a "2," giving the name the company bears today.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  6. 1995

    October 19

    The city designates the firehouse a landmark after a hearing where a company member speaks in favor

    At a public hearing on September 19, 1995, five people speak for designating the firehouse, including a member of Engine Company 252, and no one speaks against. The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates it on October 19, 1995. The report counts it among the finest firehouses ever built in Brooklyn and notes it has been in continuous use since April 1897.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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