Chelsea Firehouse Apartments

 interesting place, apartment building

4-story Victorian residential building originally completed in 1865 as a firehouse. It is clad in red brick with brownstone trim, and a central garage door wide enough to accommodate one of the new horse-drawn steam pumper engines of the time. On either side are smaller side doors, both painted bright red (as well as the garage door). The roof has a modillioned cornice.

By 1875, the firehouse had already been given over to other uses - it first became a carriage house with living quarters above. Emma K. Bean bought the building in 1908 and leased it to renters, including John Yeats beginning in 1918. In 1935 the building was converted by new owners into a garage with planned offices on the second floor; and one apartment each on the upper floors. It was most likely at this time that the architectural detailing of the brownstone lintels and main entrance surround were shaved flat—a common practice in an age that viewed Victorian ornamentation as grossly passé.

Instead of the planned office on the second floor, dancer Franziska Marie Boas established her studio and “Boas School” here. Struggling artists Andy Warhol and Philip Pearlstein moved in to share the space in 1949. Directly below the apartment, at ground level, was now a bus service garage and parts company. In March 1950, Boas and other artists were evicted; the building was sold again in 1955.

In 1998, it was converted to luxury housing with a single-car garage in the former steam engine bay, and three apartments.