Firemen's Hall

The brick building at 13-28 123rd St. in the College Point section of Queens was built in 1906 as a meeting hall for firemen. The owners were the College Point Exempt Firemen's Benevolent Association. An addition was built onto the back of the structure in 1936. The building was sold in 1959; the Knights of Columbus sold the building in 1971 to the College Point Little League. Firemen's Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. The former firemen's building station has been turned into the College Point Senior Center; the building is still owned by and used for meetings of the College Point Little League.

In the early years of College Point, established in the 1850s, the factory-filled town had volunteer firemen. College Point and Queens became part of New York City in 1898. The New York City Fire Department established a system of paid firemen in 1908. Although volunteer firemen were no longer a working group, they still functioned as local social groups. The College Point Exempt Firemen's Benevolent Association was one such social club, founded in 1893. Membership was open to those who had served five years with the fire service of either College Point or neighboring Whitestone. There were 139 members by 1903, under President John Heinze and Secretary John Konzet. Henry E. Hess was the club treasurer by 1905.

The Queen Anne style design for Firemen's Hall in 1906 was the work of local resident Peter Schreiner. Peter or his father, Mathius, built about one in every four buildings constructed in College Point in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The building has a hipped roof and a bell tower at the front southeast corner. The bell tower used to be taller, with louvered openings and a flared pyramidal roof. The projecting central bay with a pair of segmental arched openings (now covered in wood) is topped by a gable roof above an oriel window with a sunburst motif. The entrance is now a metal door (formerly a wood-and-glass door) in the front south side bay, at the top of a ramp. A dark red brick arch with keystone tops the fanlights (now covered) above the south side bay door and north side bay window. The one-story, flat-roofed rear addition was built around 1936 as a kitchen. The bell has been removed from the bell tower at an unknown date and was donated to a neighboring bank (122-03 14th Ave.; no longer a bank) where it was on display in the lobby.

The club got permission from the City of New York to close part of First Avenue in College Point for a "monster firemen's parade and tournament" to be held on October 7th 1909 from noon to 7 p.m. The group planned to build a large arch above the street in front of the entrance to Donnelly's Boulevard Park and Hotel, with grandstands near the arch on both sides of the street.

The first floor of Firemen's Hall originally functioned as a meeting hall and had antique fire-fighting equipment on display; this room connected to the rear kitchen wing added in the 1930s. Above the meeting hall is another meeting hall on the second floor, with a coved ceiling. A closet in the southeast portion of this floor has wooden steps that led to the bell tower. The building interior uses pressed-metal decorative tiles for the walls and ceilings.

Firemen's Hall was used as a meeting place for other community groups, too, including in the 1930s the local post of the American Legion and the Women's Relief Corps. The senior center that was established in the building in the late twentieth century was under the auspices of the Helenic American Neighborhood Action Committee. Since 1972, the senior center has been funded by the NYC Department of the Aging. The senior center has been named in honor of Angelo Petromelis and offers daily activities and lunch for local senior citizens, Mondays to Fridays from 8a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle staff. Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac. Edition 1904. Volume XIX(1). Brooklyn, NY. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1904.

HANAC. Angelo Petromelis College Point Senior Center, Senior Centers. Accessed June 20th 2022. https://hanac.org/programs-services/senior-programs/senior-centers/angelo-petromelis/.

Lynch, E. Courtney. NRHP Nomination of Firemen's Hall, College Point, Borough of Queens, N.Y. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 2000.

New York City Board of Aldermen. Ordinances Resolutions, Etc. Passed by the Board of Aldermen of the City of New York and Approved by the Mayor. Volume XII. New York, NY. Martin R. Brown Co., 1909.

New York City Board of City Record. Exempt or Veteran Volunteer Firemen's Associations - Borough of Queens. The City Record. June 10th 1905. 302 - 303.