Watts De Peyster Fireman's Hall
The Watts De Peyster Fireman's Hall is a former style of Richardsonian Romanesque built fire station on Broadway in Tivoli , New York in the United States. John Watts de Peyster , a local resident, paid for the building and in 1898 made it available to the Village as a fire station. As such, the brick building was more like a shop, as was more common in cities at that time than in rural villages like Tivoli.
Since the construction of a new fire station in 1986, it has been used as the official building of the village administration. In 1989 it was inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places . Three years later, it became a Contributing Property of the Hudson River Historic District , a National Historic Landmark .
building
The fire station is a three-story building with three bays in width and four in depth, on a parcel in the center of Tivoli, which measures half an acre (around 2000 m²). The facade is built in the English style , with the rows of runners at the level of the floors in the individual floors in contrasting colors. A dormer with parapet and gable, four chimneys and a round turret on the southwest corner sit on the gable roof made of slate . The cornice on the eaves is interrupted below the dormer.
On the northern side, the front, on the ground floor there are the openings of two former garages, which are now closed with wooden panel doors, and a normal entrance door in between. The row of stones above consists of stone blocks covered with oak leaves, a traditional symbol for the fire department in heraldry . One of the corner stones names the architect, the builder and the year of construction. A marble table is reminiscent of Watts de Peyster. The stone basement is partially visible on the sides and the rear.
Inside, the ground floor is divided into two areas that originally housed two fire engines . The walls are plastered and paneled , the ceiling cladding is made of stamped sheet metal and the floor is made of wooden planks. The first floor, which served as a meeting room, is similarly furnished, with the largest room being furnished with cast iron columns. The original wood-carved fireplace surrounds have been preserved in all rooms . On the second floor there is a single large room, the ceiling of which is supported by two strong wooden beams.
An outbuilding - a mid-20th century garage - is not considered contributing.
history
Tivoli, which is part of the Town of Red Hook , was incorporated as a Village in 1872 . This was preceded by a period of rapid growth due to the development of trade on the Hudson River . Two smaller existing settlements, Upper Red Hook Landing and Madalin, were merged into the new parish.
The administration of the new location soon discussed the need for a new fire station. These discussions lasted a quarter of a century, during which the economic importance of the place declined. In 1896 the village council decided to found a fire brigade and called a vote to decide on the type of financing. Two years later, John Watts de Peyster , a wealthy resident of the village, put an end to the discussions as local director and hired local architect Michael O'Connor to design a fire station. Watts de Pester had the building built and then rented it to the Village.
Due to a dispute over the town's finances, he banned the village council meetings from the building in 1900 and threatened to close the fire station if his outcast son, who had since been elected mayor, was given access. After his death seven years later, the rights were transferred to an orphanage founded by Watts de Pester. It was not until 1921 that the heirs bought the building from the orphanage and donated the building to the Village. Sometime before 2005 the building was restored and renovated.
Individual evidence
- ^ "Doorway to the Bays" at Tivoli Bays Visitor Center . Ocean and Coastal Resource Management. Retrieved June 17, 2009.
- ^ A b c d Robert Kuhn: National Register of Historic Places nomination, Watts De Peyster Fireman's House ( English ) New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation . October 1989. Archived from the original on June 4, 2012. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 16, 2009.
- ↑ Evaluation Findings for the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve: April 2009 Through September 2005 ( English , PDF; 142 kB) Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management. November 2005. Retrieved March 8, 2011.
Coordinates: 42 ° 3 ′ 32 " N , 73 ° 54 ′ 41" W.