FDNY - Engine 74

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5-story Romanesque-revival fire station completed in 1889 as Engine Company 56. Designed by Napoleon Le Brun & Sons, it is clad in red brick above a ground floor with rough-faced stone piers and bright-red metal infill. At the center is a large, paneled garage door with a 3-pane transom above it. On the right is a pedestrian entrance with a red metal door and 2-over-2 transom. To the left is a small wooden bench and two decorative panels with gold and black ornament, below a vent and window. The red metal framing at the ground floor is adorned with gilded scale ornament at the intersections of the framing, in medieval motifs with black and gold rosettes. More rosettes line the top, with a gold dentil course below a horizontal panel bearing the lettering "ENGINE CO. 74".

Above the ground floor, two floors of red brick were separated from the fourth by a stone bandcourse. Stone piers—like engaged colunettes--run up the sides and curve gently into the brickwork. Their rounded form is echoed in the bull-nosed bricks that soften the corners of the openings. The 2nd & 3rd floors both have three narrow windows with upper transom panes. The 3rd-floor window bay is topped by a smooth stone lintel, stepped up slightly above the center window where there is an elaborate carved stone panel. A plaque is located between the two floors, at the center. The 4th-floor window bay is topped by a rough-faced lintel. There is also a very small window at the 3rd floor, inserted to the left of the main bay, and a flagpole projecting from the right side.

The 4th floor is set off by a narrow, rough-faced string course, and has a single round-arched opening accentuated by a lushly-carved eyebrow and broken cornice. The top floor hides behind an ambitious gable as a slate-covered mansard.

Engine Company 56 opened under the command of Captain Michael J. McNamara, with two engineers and seven firefighters. In 1905 he received the New York Daily News medal as the city’s most popular fire captain. In 1907 the City commissioned architect Edward L. Middleton to make improvements to Engine Company 56. His updating was confined to the interior, leaving Le Brun’s façade untouched. After 22 years in command of Engine Company 56, Michael J. McNamara retired on February 1, 1911, the longest serving captain in the Fire Department. The 83rd Street station became Engine Company 74 when that company moved from its old home at 207 West 77th Street. The company is nicknamed The Lost World; this is due to the firehouse having once been painted black, so other firemen would often accidentally miss the building while looking for it. The Museum of Natural History, home to a vast collection of dinosaur bones, is a few blocks away, which ties in with the dinosaur theme owing to several sequels of the Jurassic Park movie franchise bearing the "Lost World" title. The center of the garage door bears a steel panel with a black T-Rex skull in homage to the nickname.

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