Around Jersey City, they are reminders of a time when firemen rushed to a flaming home on horse-drawn wagons.
Ira Rubin, archivist for the Jersey City Fire Department, estimates there are 13 firehouses in Jersey City that are no longer in use. Twelve inactive and active firehouses are listed on the New Jersey State Historic Register.
One firehouse is now home to a painter and his wife. Another is being sought by a local theatrical company to possibly host a new theater.
At 218 Central Ave., 520-526 Palisade Ave., and 14 Bright St., former firehouses sit empty. But there are plans by the city to sell the Central Avenue and Bright Street firehouses to developers.
The Palisade Avenue firehouse is owned by a California resident, but a Bayonne firm wants to buy the building to house 80 employees.
An old firehouse at 244 Bay St., which served as the headquarters of the Fire Department from 1871 to 1933, still maintains a connection to firefighting, as it is the home of the Gong Club, the Jersey City-based volunteer group that assists Jersey City and other Hudson County fire departments by offering beverages, food, and remedies while firefighting. Also, the firehouse is home to a museum with Fire Department memorabilia.
Rubin said people are interested in buying firehouses for a number of reasons.
“They are big spaces, especially if you need to put in a car, and they are usually well constructed,” he said.Living in a firehouse
Jeremy Smith is a painter, as well as a teacher in a suburban school. He lives with his wife in a two-family house at 278 Sixth St., formerly the station of Engine Company 5.
Smith and his wife purchased their current home about 10 years ago from the previous owner, who had bought it from the city in 1978 and had restored it.
What it is like living in a firehouse?
Smith said much of the space is a shell, and there are no reminders of its former existence.
But he said it is spacious enough for him to do his artwork.
He said that visitors usually ask him the same question about it.
“The first question I get is, ‘Does it still have a pole?’ ” City not fired up by change
The Jersey City-based J City Theater appeared at the June 25 City Council meeting, but it wasn’t to encourage the council members to check out one of their plays. Instead, Clay Cockrell, one of the founders of the theater company, was trying to persuade the council to let them transform the old Passaic Hose Engine Company headquarters at 14 Bright St. into the group’s new home.
The J City Theater, if allowed to lease the firehouse from the city for $1 per year, would put in the financing to renovate the building into a 75-seat theater. It would also have a gymnasium, art gallery and community room where plays, films and art could be shown.
But the city has other plans for the firehouse, as it is currently on the selling block.
City Business Administrator Brian O’ Reilly responded to Cockrell.
“There are many people who want to open a restaurant there, open a professional business there, who want to build on the lot next door,” he said.
He also encouraged Cockrell to consider the Jersey City Museum on Montgomery Street or the Loews Theater in Journal Square as possible locations for productions. Could be reopened as…a firehouse?
The city has different plans for another firehouse, the old Engine Company 18 Firehouse at 218 Central Ave. At an October, 2006 meeting, the City Council rejected a bid of $382,000 from an auction.
They were convinced not to put the firehouse back on sale by veteran Jersey City firefighters, who said the fire station should be reopened for active service because it could serve Journal Square, the Heights, and parts of downtown Jersey City.
However, the city has not indicated at the present time what it plans to do with the 218 Central Ave. firehouse, according to City Councilman Bill Gaughan, who represents the area where the firehouse is located. A love of firehouses
If there is anything that needs to be known about old time Jersey City firehouses, there’s a good chance that Ira Rubin knows.
Rubin, who is a dispatcher for the Jersey City Fire Department, says a majority of the firehouse buildings in Jersey City were built before 1900.
Rubin said they contained common features such as poles, overhead doors, spiral staircases, and tin ceilings, as well as being built of brick – all of which contributes to his admiration of the structures.
“Personally, I like the traditional look of these pre-1900 firehouses,” Rubin said. “Some of these firehouses were built by craftsmen who took pride in their product.”
But Rubin said those firehouses can never be restored again to be active firehouses, because it is cost-prohibitive, and new regulations call for the one-story modern firehouses.
Examples of those are the fire stations on Marin Boulevard and on the corner of Palisade Avenue and Congress Street.
As for Rubin owning a firehouse of his own, he laments, “I didn’t have the scratch years ago, and I don’t have the millions to get one now.” Comments on this story can be sent to rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com