Landmarks Designates Five Firehouses and Considers Lower East Side Nursing Home
The Bialystoker Home had an excellent designation public hearing on Tuesday. Although the building ceased operation as a nursing home last year and is currently up for sale, the owners stated that they were not opposed to landmarking. Nearly twenty other speakers, including CM Margaret Chin, Community Board 3, Friends of the Bialystoker, and HDC, testified in favor. Particularly touching and interesting was testimony given by Sam Solasz who joined the Bailystok benevolent society, which had headquarters in the building, on the day immigrated to New York City in 1951.
Five historic (and active) firehouses – Engine Co. 268/Hook & Ladder 137 in Rockaway Park, Engine Co. 73/Hook & Ladder 17 in Bathgate, Engine Co. 73/Hook & Ladder 42 in Longwood, Engine Co. 240/Battalion 48 in Windsor Terrace, and Engine Co 228 in our Six to Celebrate neighborhood of Sunset Park – were designated individual landmarks. At their public hearing last year, HDC was the only preservation group present to support their landmarking. They join Engine Co. 83/Hook & Ladder 29 and Engine Co. 41 in The Bronx and Forest Hills’s Engine Company 305/Hook & Ladder Company 151, which were all designated last year, as a fine collection of continuously operating firehouses. These buildings have stood as handsome reminders of the city’s investment in the wellbeing of its residents for over a century. Like historic schools and libraries, firehouses continue to be centers of neighborhood character and life, and their preservation serves us all well.