Watts De Peyster Fireman's Hall

The Watts De Peyster Fireman's Hall is a former built in the style of Richardsonian Romanesque firehouse on Broadway in Tivoli, New York in the United States. John Watts de Peyster, a resident of the place, paid for the construction and set 1898 as the Village fire station available. As such, the brick building was more like a retail store, as it is more in cities was common at that time and not in rural villages such as Tivoli.

Since the construction of a new fire station in 1986, it is used as an office building in the Village administration. 1989 was entered into the National Register of Historic Places. Three years later it became a contributing property of the Hudson River Historic District, a National Historic Landmark.

Building

The fire station is a three storey building with three bays in width and four in depth, on a parcel in the center of Tivoli, which measures a half- acre ( 2,000 m²). The facade is brick in English Association, said rotor rows are performed at the level of floors in each floor in color- contrasting colors. On the gable roof of slate sit a dormer window with parapet and gables, four fireplaces and a round tower on the southwest corner. The cornice at the eaves is interrupted below the dormer.

On the north side, the front, the openings of two previous garages that are now closed with wooden Paneeltoren, as well as a normal entrance door on the ground floor in between. The stone row above consists of stone blocks that are provided with oak leaves, a traditional symbol of the fire service in heraldry. One of the cornerstones called the architect, the builder and the year of construction. A marble plaque commemorates Watts de Peyster. The stone basement is partially visible on the sides and rear of the front.

Inside, the ground floor is divided into two areas in which there were originally two fire trucks. The walls are plastered and paneled, the ceiling panels made ​​of stamped sheet metal and the floor is made of wooden planks. The first floor, which served as a meeting room is equipped similarly, with the largest room is equipped with cast-iron columns. All rooms have their original wooden carved fireplace mantels are obtained. The second floor is one large room, whose ceiling is supported by two strong wooden beams.

An outbuilding - garage from the mid-20th century - is not considered contributing.

History

Tivoli, which belongs to the Town of Red Hook, was born in 1872 incorporated as a Village. This was preceded by a phase of rapid growth, which was due to the development of commerce on the Hudson River. Two smaller existing settlements, Upper Red Hook Landing and Madalin were summarized in the new community.

Soon, discussed the management of the new place, that a new fire station would be necessary. These discussions continued for a quarter of a century, during which the economic importance of the place fell. 1896 the village council decided the establishment of a fire department and called a vote, which should decide on the type of financing. Two years later, John Watts de Peyster, a wealthy inhabitants of the village, as a local director of the discussions to an end and commissioned the local architect Michael O'Connor order to design a fire station. Watts de Pester had built the building and then leased it to the Village.

Due to a dispute over the finances of the place he banished 1900, the meetings of the village council of the building and threatened to close the fire station, if his outcast son, who had meanwhile been elected mayor, the access was made possible. After his death seven years later the rights were transferred to a company founded by Watts de Pester orphanage. Only in 1921 bought the heirs of the building of the orphanage and gave the building to the Village. Sometime before 2005, the building has been restored and renovated.