FDNY - Engine Company 6

 fire service, 1903_construction, Beaux-Arts (architecture)

3-story Beaux-Arts fire station completed in 1903. Designed by Horgan & Slattery, its ground floor is faced in rusticated limestone on a granite water table, with a vehicle door in the center, a window on the left, and a pedestrian entrance on the right. All three openings have splayed stone lintels, that over the garage door being much larger and intertwining with the Greek-fret motif bandcourse that runs across the top of the ground floor, just below a projecting stone architrave that reads "Engine 6". There are also bronze plaques above the window and doorway. The upper floors are clad in red brick, with a central, double-height segmental-arched opening framed in stone. The windows within this bay have black metal framing and are separated by a red terra-cotta spandrel with paneled carvings. The arch is topped by an ornate keystone flanked by garlands and swag. On either side of the central opening is a narrow window at the 2nd floor, with a projecting corbelled stone sill, and splayed stone lintel. Above these are stone cartouches and short stone piers, with two more narrower short stone piers on either side of the central arch's keystones. Between the two pairs of piers are stone tablets. Crowning the facade is a white modillioned roof cornice below a squared pediment in the center. The garage door features a snarling tiger painted on it, referencing the fire company's nickname, the "Beekman Tigers".

Engine 6 was organized in 1756 with quarters on Crown Street (now Liberty Street) near Kip Street (now Nassau Street). The men first did duty with buckets until an engine could be built for them. The Company reorganized and moved to Murray Street, in a house built in the wall of what was at the time the Columbia College grounds, where they remained until 1833. No. 6 was disbanded by the city authorities in 1846. However, the Company was later reinstituted as Americus Engine Company No. 6, and on May 23, 1850, William M. Tweed, the famous "Boss Tweed" of Tammany Hall, was elected foreman. In January 1854 the Company moved to a brownstone on Henry Street near Gouveneur Street. By then the crest of the tiger had become adopted as a symbol for the Company.

The Company later had its base at 100 Cedar Street and subsequently moved to 113 Liberty Street, which was eventually replaced by the World trade Center. When 113 Liberty was demolished, the company was relocated to the quarters of Engine 32 at 49 Beekman Street. Both companies worked out of the same location for a number of years, until 1972 when Engine 32 was disbanded, leaving Engine Company No. 6 as the sole occupant of the firehouse were they currently remain.

The Company's quarters are near the World Trade Center site, and because of this Engine 6 had a specially-built pump powerful enough to push water to the top of the 110-story towers. Engine 6 was a first responder on September 11 and stationed itself on West Street at Vesey Street and hooked into the Trade Center standpipe there. That engine was destroyed in the collapse of the North Tower, and has been replaced temporarily by an older engine.

The flag draped outside the Engine 6 firehouse is from somewhere in the Trade Center, and had been placed by a firefighter on top of the destroyed Engine 6 at the site. When the Engine 6 wreckage was hauled away, the flag was brought to the firehouse.

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