Station 1 Engine 1 aka E-65 1959

[pjm1733 22]

White Plains 1959

sta 1.htm

[tommyguy 104]

Like the lady in the link says, "You know you're from White Plains when..." That really takes me back. Thanks! Being a North Broadway-Lake Street boy I seldom saw Engine 1. When I did, about 1965, they were using an open cab ALF.

Later on they stored -- was it an spare engine? -- in the rear of the bay at Station One, didn't they?

[dc2t 80]

Looks like the 1954 Seagrave Engine 7, if so was purchased by Fairview in 1978

[pepa63 0]

Looks like the 1954 Seagrave Engine 7, if so was purchased by Fairview in 1978

being an old battle hill guy looks like the old eng65 aka eng5 is that fire house on Robertson ave still open

[pepa63 0]

being an old battle hill guy this looks like the old eng69 aka eng 5 is that Robertson ave fire house still open or is it closed down

[dc2t 80]

Robertson ave has been closed at least 30 years as a manned station.

[pepa63 0]

Robertson ave has been closed at least 30 years as a manned station.

thanks for the info

[sfrd18 360]

Great piece of history! Thanks for sharing.

For anyone who's interested, here are the current WPFD Fire Station assignments.

Station # 1 - Engine 65 - 93 Prescott Ave.

Station # 2 - Engine 66, Tower Ladder 6, Squad 4, S.S.U. 4, M.A. 32 - 20 Ferris Pl.

Station # 3 - Engine 67 - 2 Terrace Ave.

Station # 4 - Not Staffed(Spare Engine 69) - 232 S. Lexington Ave.

Station # 5 - Not Staffed(Used by WPPD) - Robertson Ave. & Harding Ave.

Station # 6(HQ) - Engine 70, Ladder 32, Rescue 88, Deputy Chief - 219 Mamaroneck Ave.

Station # 7 - Engine 71, Ladder 34 - 663 North St.

Edited August 3, 2013 by sfrd18

[TheNewLadder32 49]

Station #4 also holds spare Engine 69

Station #5 no longer holds the volunteer Engine 210 it holds some police vehicles.

[tommyguy 104]

In the era around 1959 WPFD had four engine companies (out of seven) operating Seagraves.

Engs 1 (65) and 7 (71) were rated at 750 GPM with 150 gallon tanks.

Engs 3 (67) and 5 (69) were 1,000 GPM with 300 gallon tanks.

This information came from someone here a while back, someone from the White Plains Fire Department. I can't find the message but I saved the information in a Word file.

[fire 1 asst chief 49]

Yes the Seagrave was replaced by old Eng. 6 (70) ALF when the first Maxim was placed in service. The ALF had a 500 gallon tank and a 1,000 GPM pump which came in handy fighting fires at the Gedney Way land fill caused by hot ashes that were dumped there from the incinerator.

[tommyguy 104]

If I can go a bit off-topic, the old Battle Hill guy asked about the closing of Station Five. I don't remember the exact date but I think it was around 1973.

I lived in the Battle Hill section then and the city's rationale was -- and remember, this is the city's side of this -- with the reconstruction and widening of Hamilton Avenue and Tarrytown Road, Engine 2 (66) would be able to reach the Battle Hill neighborhood so quickly that Station Five was no longer really necessary.

Of course the evening my upstairs neighbor had a kitchen fire Eng 2 was OOS. The first company to arrive, and the only company on scene for several long minutes, was Truck 33. (The ALF tiller.) My roommate at the time recognized one of the guys on the truck as a buddy. He asked him, "Hey where's the rest of the cavalry? The truckie laughed and said, "Back at 159 South Lex." (I think that was the night somebody tried to put a couch down an incinerator duct. Lots of smoke in the hallways.)

Anyway the kitchen fire where we lived was just a small section of wallboard that had somehow ignited. The truckmen somehow managed to put it out by the time Eng 3 (67) arrived.

At least there wasn't much water damage!

[fire 1 asst chief 49]

At the time of the closure of Sta. 5 the City of White Plains was in the last (I believe) phase of the New York state mandated reduction in the work week from 56 to 40 hours. True to the practice of running short staffed the city closed Sta. 5 rather than hire the additional manpower needed to accommodate the hour reduction. It then spread the troops around to the other fire stations. As Paul Harvey was fond of saying "that is the rest of the story".

[210 91]

At the time of the closure of Sta. 5 the City of White Plains was in the last (I believe) phase of the New York state mandated reduction in the work week from 56 to 40 hours. True to the practice of running short staffed the city closed Sta. 5 rather than hire the additional manpower needed to accommodate the hour reduction. It then spread the troops around to the other fire stations. As Paul Harvey was fond of saying "that is the rest of the story".

Chief, off topic for a moment. Did WPFD run (3) tillers at the same time at some point in time?

[fire 1 asst chief 49]

Three tillers @ the same time interesting question.

Truck 2 Station two was a tiller, 1957 LaFrance, It was replaced by a Maxim tiller and was sent to Sta. 7 so that accounts for two @ the same time. Truck 1 at Hq was replaced with a Maxim tiller also in the early '70s so I guess there was a time that WP ran all tillers.

[pepa63 0]

If I can go a bit off-topic, the old Battle Hill guy asked about the closing of Station Five. I don't remember the exact date but I think it was around 1973.

I lived in the Battle Hill section then and the city's rationale was -- and remember, this is the city's side of this -- with the reconstruction and widening of Hamilton Avenue and Tarrytown Road, Engine 2 (66) would be able to reach the Battle Hill neighborhood so quickly that Station Five was no longer really necessary.

Of course the evening my upstairs neighbor had a kitchen fire Eng 2 was OOS. The first company to arrive, and the only company on scene for several long minutes, was Truck 33. (The ALF tiller.) My roommate at the time recognized one of the guys on the truck as a buddy. He asked him, "Hey where's the rest of the cavalry? The truckie laughed and said, "Back at 159 South Lex." (I think that was the night somebody tried to put a couch down an incinerator duct. Lots of smoke in the hallways.)

Anyway the kitchen fire where we lived was just a small section of wallboard that had somehow ignited. The truckmen somehow managed to put it out by the time Eng 3 (67) arrived.

At least there wasn't much water damage!

we moved off the hill in 1970 before the urban renewal started

[PCFD ENG58 1,085]

And at sta.2 it [ 1957 American Lafrance left without a tiller man ooop's

[fire 1 asst chief 49]

Yes they did, a Sunday afternoon If I remember correctly. Some banged up sheet metal, thankfully no injuries.

[tommyguy 104]

If I can go off-topic...

This thread has brought back A LOT of memories.

One is about the way White Plains began to change in the late 1960s and 1970s. Today it's almost unrecognizable compared to the White Plains I knew from about 1955-1966.

When I was a youngster, in the early 1960s, we were always going 'downtown': to Macy's or Woolworth's or the Library, to the RKO or Loew's. That was a big deal to us then. In the mid-1960s I lived near Lake Street. The 'Valley.' Like many Lake Street kids I seldom left the neighborhood. Except to go to WPHS and that was way out on North Street.

Then I started working full-time. I had a small apartment on Barker Avenue. I remember in late 1968 or early 1969, one morning I got up early, around 8:30 AM -- I was working nights -- and walked over to Main Street to get the morning papers at the White Swan Stationary store. And I hadn't been around that part of Main Street much for several years. I walked over to Hamilton Avenue and cut through Conway Drive by the new Sears parking deck. Back then Conway Drive didn't have a name. I don't think the parking deck was even completely finished.

When I walked down Conway Drive and turned the corner onto Main what a shock! At 8:30 AM the sidewalks were wall-to-wall people. Office workers. They had opened the office towers along North Broadway above Sears. I couldn't believe my eyes. I turned the corner and I felt like I had stepped into Manhattan.

Just a few years earlier, Main St at 8:30 in the morning would've been mostly deserted. Why would anyone have been there that early? Macy's wasn't open that early. There would just be some delivery trucks, at the Daitch-Shopwell, maybe a couple more at Joe's White Swan deli near Broadway.

Back then the Sears site was still an AT&T parking lot. (A 'lot' not a 'deck.') One North Broadway was a small Con Ed office. There was a little insurance company further north on Broadway, a two- or three-story red brick building. (I think that's still there.) Then, closer to Hamilton Avenue, there was an old Victorian house converted to office's. I used to deliver the Reporter-Dispatch on that side of B'way. There was a prominent White Plains lawyer with an office in the converted house, I think. Basil Filardi. I used to deliver his paper. (Or was he on Church Street? I used to deliver the papers on Church Street, too.)

Then it all changed. And kept changing. In fact, White Plains is still changing!

[210 91]

Three tillers @ the same time interesting question.

Truck 2 Station two was a tiller, 1957 LaFrance, It was replaced by a Maxim tiller and was sent to Sta. 7 so that accounts for two @ the same time. Truck 1 at Hq was replaced with a Maxim tiller also in the early '70s so I guess there was a time that WP ran all tillers.

Thanks.

[pepa63 0]

If I can go off-topic...

This thread has brought back A LOT of memories.

One is about the way White Plains began to change in the late 1960s and 1970s. Today it's almost unrecognizable compared to the White Plains I knew from about 1955-1966.

When I was a youngster, in the early 1960s, we were always going 'downtown': to Macy's or Woolworth's or the Library, to the RKO or Loew's. That was a big deal to us then. In the mid-1960s I lived near Lake Street. The 'Valley.' Like many Lake Street kids I seldom left the neighborhood. Except to go to WPHS and that was way out on North Street.

Then I started working full-time. I had a small apartment on Barker Avenue. I remember in late 1968 or early 1969, one morning I got up early, around 8:30 AM -- I was working nights -- and walked over to Main Street to get the morning papers at the White Swan Stationary store. And I hadn't been around that part of Main Street much for several years. I walked over to Hamilton Avenue and cut through Conway Drive by the new Sears parking deck. Back then Conway Drive didn't have a name. I don't think the parking deck was even completely finished.

When I walked down Conway Drive and turned the corner onto Main what a shock! At 8:30 AM the sidewalks were wall-to-wall people. Office workers. They had opened the office towers along North Broadway above Sears. I couldn't believe my eyes. I turned the corner and I felt like I had stepped into Manhattan.

Just a few years earlier, Main St at 8:30 in the morning would've been mostly deserted. Why would anyone have been there that early? Macy's wasn't open that early. There would just be some delivery trucks, at the Daitch-Shopwell, maybe a couple more at Joe's White Swan deli near Broadway.

Back then the Sears site was still an AT&T parking lot. (A 'lot' not a 'deck.') One North Broadway was a small Con Ed office. There was a little insurance company further north on Broadway, a two- or three-story red brick building. (I think that's still there.) Then, closer to Hamilton Avenue, there was an old Victorian house converted to office's. I used to deliver the Reporter-Dispatch on that side of B'way. There was a prominent White Plains lawyer with an office in the converted house, I think. Basil Filardi. I used to deliver his paper. (Or was he on Church Street? I used to deliver the papers on Church Street, too.)

Then it all changed. And kept changing. In fact, White Plains is still changing!

I guess you forgot the macys parade say after thanksgiving that was a good time