Bringing a Firehouse Back to Community Service: An Interview With Henry Street Settlement
An archival photo of the firehouse with a firetruck parked in front, before the building was decommissioned by the FDNY.
The nonprofit Henry Street Settlement is one of this year’s Excellence in Historic Preservation Award winners for their remarkable restoration and adaptive reuse of a historic firehouse. Henry Street has been providing social services to Lower East Side residents since 1893, and this new location — named the Dale Jones Burch Neighborhood Center in honor of the project’s lead funder — allows them to provide even more much-needed programming to underserved communities.
We reached out to Maggie Oldfather, Henry Street’s Facilities Officer, to learn more about this incredible restoration that was a decade in the making.
Can you tell me a bit more about your organization, Henry Street Settlement?
Henry Street Settlement’s mission is to open doors of opportunity for Lower East Side residents and other New Yorkers through social services, arts, and health care programs. The organization is distinguished by its commitment to listening to and learning from our neighbors — and then acting to meet the most pressing needs of our community.
The new lobby inside the Dale Jones Burch Neighborhood Center. The old firepole was retained and greets visitors as they enter, giving a nod to the building’s former life. Photo credit: Max Touhey, Beyer Blinder Belle
Henry Street offers more than 50 programs to people of all ages through our Abrons Arts Center, Education & Employment, Health & Wellness, Senior Services, and Transitional & Supportive Housing divisions. These vast programs range from preschool to Meals on Wheels delivery, job-readiness training to mental health counseling, and homeless services to theater performances.
Founded in 1893, Henry Street is guided in all we do by the blueprint left by our trailblazing founder, Lillian Wald, who believed that poverty is a social issue — not an individual failing — and that there is power in bridging differences. We continue to follow her admonition: “In times of need, act.”
What was the process like acquiring the firehouse and embarking on its restoration?
The firehouse, built in 1883, had been vacant since Engine Company No. 15 relocated to 25 Pitt Street after 9/11, when a fleet of new trucks were built and could no longer fit into the narrow building. (The firehouse sits on the site of an even earlier structure, built in 1854 for the Americus Engine Company No. 6, whose first foreman — albeit in an different location — was William “Boss” Tweed.)
An archival photo of the firehouse from street level before it was decommissioned.
Shortly after the firehouse was decommissioned, Henry Street began a long campaign of collaboration with Community Board 3 and the Manhattan Borough President’s Office to ensure that it would be preserved for community use. Once it was established that the building would not be sold to the highest bidder, Henry Street worked for more than a decade to purchase it from New York City, buying it for $1 in 2017. In order for the city to approve the sale, Henry Street was required to present extensive plans to restore the building and undergo the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure zoning procedure.
Thanks to the extremely generous and early support of our board member Dale Jones Burch and her family, the Settlement was able to bring on the architecture firm of Beyer Blinder Belle — well-regarded for its preservation and rehabilitation work — and Burda Construction, also known for its restoration work, through a competitive bidding process. Both firms proceeded to do an exceptional job on the project. By the time Henry Street acquired the firehouse, it was well positioned to begin the two-and-one-half-year restoration project.
What was the biggest obstacle you had to overcome on this project?
Our biggest obstacle was the physical reality of the space. High ceilings on every floor give the impression that the building is significantly larger than it actually is. Part of the reason the building was decommissioned by FDNY was that it was simply no longer big enough for them and we faced the same challenge trying to figure out how to provide the necessary social-services spaces while retaining a sense of openness throughout the building. We were able to do so while also adding a new elevator to provide accessibility to our key programmatic spaces in a way that was impossible in the space the programs were relocating out of.
Was there an unexpected discovery you made during the project?
The top of the building, showing the intricate detailing on the cornice and windows. Photo credit: Max Touhey, Beyer Blinder Belle
We discovered a number of historic artifacts in the building during the initial phase of construction and were able to donate them to the FDNY museum for their collection. These included an old call-signal chart that instructed firefighters where they needed to respond in an emergency before these systems were digitized.
We were able to recover decorative details on the facade that had been either covered by layers of paint or hidden by sheet metal. The cast iron storefront and cornice had been covered by many years of paint and only through careful stripping were we able to realize the extent of decorative detail. The original wood window frames were also found to be intact around the replaced windows and had delicately rounded profiles that were mirrored in the bluestone course above the windows, which had been covered in sheet metal.
What role do you see preservation playing in building up sustainable communities?
A photo of a large group of people standing in front of the Dale Jones Burch Neighborhood Center at its grand opening, just before cutting the ceremonial ribbon. Photo credit: Marc Goldberg Photography
Preservation is integral to maintaining sustainable communities. By preserving existing buildings we acknowledge that there is value inherent in the existing community. Connecting to the history of a community via the built fabric reminds us of how things may have gone right and gone wrong in the past. By re-engaging buildings that stopped serving a positive community function we demonstrate that the community can continue to change without forgetting that history. While a new development and new buildings may bring with them greater access to affordable housing, health care, grocery stores, and other important services, they must be balanced with the preservation of what is already there. The complex quilt of new and old brings a vibrancy to our communities. We acknowledge our past, we celebrate it, or we mourn it, and we use it to help us get to our future. Preservation also has a comparatively light environmental footprint, recaptures materials, and puts them back into use. Compared with demolition and new construction, restoration has less negative impact on the existing infrastructure and is less disruptive to the community during construction.
The Dale Jones Burch Neighborhood Center is already serving your community. How do you see that space evolving over the next few years?
The Dale Jones Burch Neighborhood Center sits at the corner with other Henry Street Settlement buildings to its left. Photo credit: Max Touhey, Beyer Blinder Belle
The Dale Jones Burch Neighborhood Center opened just before the coronavirus pandemic broke out, and the crisis has underscored the immense value of the services provided there. As we like to say, the firehouse has been returned to its historic role as a “first responder,” helping people attain important benefits such as food stamps; sign up for affordable health insurance; get eviction-protection help and connections with employment services; and obtain legal, financial, and parenting help. It is literally a lifesaver for people in our community.
When COVID hit, Henry Street launched a Helpline, staffed with 16 social workers and overseen by the Dale Jones Burch Neighborhood Center team, to address extremely urgent needs, particularly food insecurity among seniors and others unable to leave their home and among undocumented and other workers who had lost their incomes and had no access to unemployment insurance. With individual and foundation funding, Henry Street set up an emergency cash assistance fund and developed three food pantries from the ground up, which have protected many of our neighbors from destitution and hunger.
Over the next few years, the neighborhood center will play a critical role in helping Lower East Siders and other New Yorkers get back on their feet. As soon as people are able to gather in larger numbers in person, we see the building serving the community in many ways— from hosting educational workshops on topics such as resume-writing and job hunting skills to convening neighbors in town halls to discuss everything from housing to public safety. Already, we are receiving a groundswell of calls to the firehouse from those in need, and we anticipate the building will be a bustling hive of activity! In the longer term, just as new programs evolved at Henry Street after 9/11 and other cataclysmic events, our work, and the role of the neighborhood center will continue to evolve to meet needs as they arise.
On completion, what were you most proud of?
We are most proud of the overall visual impact that the restored building has made on the neighborhood and the simple beauty of the interior spaces. By restoring the storefront and re-installing windows that fit the full height of the opening, we were able to bring both the façade and the interior back to life. The building’s interior feels incredibly vibrant and is now both a comforting and dynamic place in which to provide essential programs to thousands of our neighbors on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
This interview is part of our series celebrating the 2020 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award winners. You can find all the posts in this series by clicking here.