Five years ago, one of Newark’s oldest firehouses at 27 Academy Street was nearly demolished. The owner, Paramount Assets, believed the building was structurally unstable and wanted to construct a 13-story apartment tower in its place.
Now the developer has returned with plans to restore the building.
The Landmarks Commission approved the restoration plan in December, though it was overshadowed by the noise about NJPAC’s controversial plan to demolish the Cathedral House, which was announced on the same day.
Nevertheless, Paramount Asset’s plan to renovate both 27 and 29-31 Academy Street is part of a favorable trend happening in the Four Corners Historic District. But it would not have happened if the developer’s demolition had been approved in 2020, underscoring the importance of the Landmarks Commission holding the line.
The building opened as the city’s fire headquarters in the late 19th century. It even had arched carriage entrances on the ground floor where horse-drawn trucks were stabled and a water tower. In 1903, the headquarters was sold to the City Hall Commission, which was tasked with raising funds and selecting a design for a new City Hall. The headquarters was eventually moved inside the new City Hall when it opened in 1906.
The building has seen some alterations since it was converted from a firehouse into townhomes, but Richard Dunn, vice president at Paramount Assets, said much of the original detail has survived.
“The side on Halsey really has not gone through many changes — that is basically the original structure,” he said. “The cornice is original, the brickwork is original.”
The building is located in the Four Corners Historic District, which was listed on the National Register in 2000. The neighborhood has seen a number of plans to restore important landmarks, including the former Ohrbach’s department store and RKO Theater, though neither project has broken ground. Other projects, like the Griffith Building, are nearing the finish line.
Paramount Assets has been behind 12 restoration projects in Newark, including several within the Four Corners Historic District. The developer owns a 12-story building built in 1926 at 17 Academy Street and a historic commercial building at 869 Broad Street. Their most notable restoration project was the Coleman National Business College building at 45 Academy Street, where the company moved its headquarters in 2019.
“We believe the historic buildings are the fabric of the city and razing them is not in everyone’s best interest,” Dunn said.
At the December hearing, Dunn mentioned the company’s 2020 plan to demolish the building, but said he has devised a way to stabilize it.
“There are structural defects within that area, and the structural defects go up to floors two and three,” he said. “That was why we decided it was in our best interest to demolish the building.”
Dunn said he plans to create a memorial on the building’s ground floor to its former life as the city’s fire headquarters.
“It’s a very important piece of the fire department’s history, and we will be memorializing the building with plaques on the side showing the three phases of the building through its life.”
In 1901, a story ran in the Newark Sunday News, detailing how the old-fashioned fire-alarm system worked, which was activated by levers found on city streets. The article includes photographs of the building’s interior.
“If a fire should be discovered in a building, the nearest box would be the one at the northeast corner—No. 21,” the story reads. “Thus, the electrical instruments in the building at Academy and Halsey Street, set in motion by pulling the hook, ring the gong in the fire engine house. It turns the previously quiet place into a perfect whirlwind of activity for an instant.”
