Bronx New Deal - Photo #581 - Fieldston Firehouse

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engine52a
Photo:  Frank da Cruz, 21 July 2018.
The Engine 52 / Hook & Ladder 52 firehouse at 4550 Henry Hudson Parkway East in the Fieldston section of Bronx NY (MAP), serving Fieldston, Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, Kingsbridge, and Marble Hill since 1884. The present building was designed and constructed in 1939[1,2] by the US Works Projects Administration[2]:
Public Buildings ... The new house built by the WPA for Engine Company 52 at 4550 Riverdale Avenue replaces an old frame building. The new structure, of a design to harmonize with the architecture of the neighborhood, is a two-story and basement building 75 feet 8 inches by 74 feet, with a three-story hose tower, the whole of steel and brick construction with limestone trim, lead-coated copper roof, copper kalamein doors and windows and glazed terra cotta walls throughout the first floor.[2,p.24]
The firehouse is still there and active, but the name of this part of the street has changed from Riverdale Avenue to Henry Hudson Parkway East. You can see the building has a promising-looking plaque right of the door but ironically, the plaque (next image) does not credit the WPA, so for this building, the New Deal pedigree comes from a WPA document[2] and not from the plaque, which is the opposite case of the City Island firehouse.
References
  1. Fire Company Locations of New City, Mike Boucher BXCO, for F.D.N.Y. Home page, last modified 4 Aug 2011 (accessed 20 July 2018): "COMBINATION ENGINE COMPANY 52 BRONX ORG. 4550 Riverdale Ave. (Aug. 30, 1884) DISB. To Org. Engine 52 (Nov. 1, 1928) ENGINE 52 BRONX ORG. 4550 Riverdale Ave. FQ CEC-52 (Nov. 1, 1928) NQTRS. 4550 Riverdale Ave. W/ L-52 (May 1, 1939) ENGINE 52 (2) BRONX ORG. 4550 Riverdale Ave. At E-52 (Jan. 13, 1955) DISB. (Aug. 21, 1956)"
  2. Somervell, Brehon, The Record for 1939 In New York City, United States Works Projects Administration, New York, N.Y. (1939). A summary of WPA projects in New York City for 1939, naming this firehouse among them on page 24. The author was the Works Projects Administrator for New York City. The links access an online digitized version of this publication housed at the Hathi Trust Digital Library.