FDNY - Engine 23 (New York City, New York)

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3-story Beaux-Arts fire station completed in 1906. Designed by Alexander H. Stevens, it houses Engine Company 23, and is colloquially referred to as the Lions' Den. The unit, also known as "The West Side Tigers" itself is one of the FDNY’s oldest, having been organized on October 6, 1865, only two months after the establishment of a paid fire department. Engine Company No. 23 started on West 68th Street, between Broadway and Tenth Avenue, on the section of the road we now call Amsterdam Avenue. But it moved to 233 West 58th Street in 1884, staying there until moving to its current home. The company lost six firefighters on September 11, 2001, and 12 firemen lost their lives battling a blaze at a loft at 23rd Street and Broadway in 1966.

The station is clad in reddish-brown brick and limestone. The ground floor has a grey granite water table, and is dominated by the bright-red, segmental-arched vehicle door. The former window opening to the right has become a flat niche and contains a seated lion, sculpted in marble, supporting with his right paw a shield on which "23" is displayed in low relief. A pair of metal lanterns flank the vehicle door. Five bronze plaques have been affixed to the stone surface of the ground floor on either side of the door. To the left of the garage door is a narrow pedestrian door, also painted red, with a leaded glass panel. The ground floor is capped by a limestone
belt course on which "23 ENGINE 23" is affixed in raised, bronze numbers and letters, above a stone bracket. A large bronze plaque occupies the central position of the limestone frieze above this course.

The large 2nd-floor window's ashlar stone surround is keyed into the adjacent brick bond. Thick limestone mullions subdivide it into a wide central window and two narrow side windows, each with a transom above. A large, limestone scroll keystone and two conventional brackets support the balconet above. The sides of these brackets are articulated with panels containing horizontal reeding.

Like the window below, the large 3rd-floor window's limestone surround is both keyed into the adjacent brick bond and subdivided by limestone mullions. But unlike the window below, this window is defined by an eared architrave interrupted only by the large limestone key console. The balconet supports the projecting architrave blocks to which the ends of the long, wrought iron grille fronting the window are attached. The pattern within the grille is a foliated one; the central medallion frames an open work fleur-de-lis. A flagpole projects out from below this iron grille. This window is flanked by two smaller windows also. The entablature above is limestone; except for its limestone coping and limestone end blocks the parapet is of brick. The roof cornice is dentiled and modillioned.

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