Building of the Day: 274 Hicks Street

Editor’s note: An updated version of this post can be viewed here.

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Engine Company 224, FDNY
Address: 274 Hicks Street
Cross Streets: Joralemon and State Streets
Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights
Year Built: 1903
Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival
Architect: Adams & Warren
Other buildings by architect: estates in Southampton, and other South Shore towns.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Brooklyn Heights HD (1965)

The story: An upscale neighborhood like Brooklyn Heights deserves an upscale fire house, and this one certainly fits the bill. It’s a Gilded Age mansion for NY’s Bravest, and an excellent example of how civic architecture, done well, can enrich a neighborhood, as well as provide a public service. This particular fire house was built pretty late in Brooklyn’s Heights’ architectural history, much later all of the buildings around it, but adds so much to the streetscape, with great presence, and it decorates well for the holidays, too.

The firehouse was designed by the firm of Adams & Warren. William Adams, (1871-1956) was primarily known for his work on Long Island, where he designed large, year-round estates for the wealthy, most in the Colonial Revival or Tudor Revival style. He often partnered with Charles Peck Warren, (1868-1918) and the two men were in partnership from 1900 until 1914. Their homes were mostly on the south shore of Long Island, and were low, rambling estates, prized for Adams’ ability to make the most of the landscape they were in, fitting well within the environment in both a practical and picturesque way.

Charles Warren was a Brooklyn boy, and received his higher education at Columbia University, in both undergrad and architecture school. He later taught at the same institution, where his specialty was construction and architectural engineering. He was known amongst his colleagues as an exacting architect, a fine engineer, and an excellent teacher, as well. Sadly, he died at the age of 49. He is not the Warren of the better known firm of Warren and Wetmore, the architects of Grand Central Station. That was Whitney Warren.

The firehouse is a grand Renaissance Revival structure, which stands out from its neighbors, which include groups of carriage houses next door and across the street. It is also next door to a group of fine William Tubby designed Queen Anne houses built in 1885, among the latest houses on that block. It’s quite a stately presence, and aside from its functional large entryway, could easily pass for one of the Beaux-Arts mansions of the Upper East Side, with handsome patinated copper-clad dormers and tiles on the upper story, and a fine limestone and iron balcony below. Every fire house should look this good. GMAP