In the market for a fire station? The former Engine #2 and Ladder #9 at the corner of Jersey Street and Plymouth Avenue is up for sale with an asking price of $213,000. The historic building was constructed in 1875 and has been in private ownership since 1999. It was sold by the City after a replacement station opened at Elmwood Avenue and Virginia Street.
The 12,000 sq.ft. building is considered one of the most important buildings in the resurgent Kleinhans neighborhood. It is being marketed by WNY Properties LLC as ideal for a loft conversion, office space, commercial space or restaurant uses.
Kleinhan’s Community Association provides the building history:
The fire house was complete by the end of 1875 its grand opening was December 14, 1875, when the building was hailed as the being the handsomest of its kind in the City and among the finest in the United States.
The building was designed by Cyrus K. Porter and George Watkins. In the 1890s it was expanded by the architectural firm of Eckel and Ackerman in a way that closely emulated its original design. Porter's design, a three-story brick Second Empire building, is an excellent example of the style that was so popular during the 1870s. The straight-sided mansard roof still retains its hexagonal slate tile and is pleasantly interrupted by dormers with pedimented windows.
The second story windows on the front of the building are decorated with stone lintels and pediment-like stone heads in a carved foliate pattern. The second story also has a series of nine brick pilasters capped by stone with a scroll and foliate pattern. The first floor originally had highly ornamental entrance doors with stone decorations that were similar to the adornments crowning the second story windows. On the Plymouth Avenue side of the building the first floor windows are of the round arched variety while the second story sports segmental arched windows.
Get Connected: Pierre Wallinder, WNY Properties: 716-842-1333