Firehouse being sold to clothing designer

The Fleetwing will move into an addition to be built at the Union Fire Company.

By: Linda Seida
   LAMBERTVILLE — A piece of Lambertville’s architectural history is being sold to a clothing designer.
   The Fleetwing Hook and Ladder Company has agreed to sell its 19th-century building on North Main Street for more than $375,000 because the 2,300-square-foot space cannot accommodate the company’s new ladder truck, according to company secretary Frank Kramer.
   The sale is expected to be completed June 1, after which the Fleetwing will share space with the Union Fire Company.
   The Union, also located on North Main Street, plans to build an addition. The two companies will share the cost of the 4,000-square-foot addition, according to Union President Ron Siwy. A final cost is not known because the design is still in the planning stage, but it will be "probably in the neighborhood of $400,000," Mr. Siwy said.
   Despite sharing a building, each company will retain its independence, Mr. Kramer said.
   "We still want to remain the Fleetwing Hook and Ladder Company, and the Union will remain the Union," Mr. Kramer said.
   Mr. Siwy added, "Both companies voted to do this almost unanimously."
   The Fleetwing’s new truck is expected to arrive in 2007. Voters approved the $810,000 purchase in February.
   The Union and the Fleetwing share a long history, according to Mr. Siwy. In 1964, the companies celebrated their 100th anniversaries together. In 1989, they again drew together to celebrate their 125th anniversaries.
   Mr. Siwy said he did not know anything about the woman who is under contract to purchase the building. A published report has identified the buyer as an artist.
   The real estate agent handling the sale, Bruce Gage of Coldwell Bankers, said the woman purchasing the property is a clothing designer from Lambertville. She plans to have a retail studio on the first floor and live on the second floor, he said.
   He added that when the building went on the block a few weeks ago, "There was a bidding war. I showed that place twice a day for 20 days; Sundays, too."
   Interested buyers came from as far away as New York City and Philadelphia, he said.
   There were four written bids, Mr. Gage said, with the building going for more than the asking price of $375,000. He would not say how much it sold for.
   The new owner intends to restore the building back to "its original grandeur," Mr. Gage said.
   Mr. Kramer, who also serves on the City Council, said he was sad to see the building go. He has lived next door to the Fleetwing his entire life.
   "All over the country, firehouses are being refurbished" for uses other than housing fire companies, Mr. Kramer said. "It’s a sign of the times."
   The Fleetwing has served the city since the 1860s.
   In the late 1800s Chief Charles H.W. Van Sciver wrote the Fleetwing was "one of the brightest stars in the cluster of the firefighting associations in our city," according to a history of the company written by Mr. Kramer’s wife, Sue Kramer.
   The company’s first residence was a building owned by the Belvidere Delaware Railroad Company at the depot, which was located near where the Lambertville Station Restaurant stands today. When the railroad needed more space, it asked the fire company to leave. For a time, the company had to leave its truck in the stable yard of the Belmont House on North Main Street.
   The Fleetwing was incorporated in March 1867 and laid the cornerstone of the building at 12 N. Main in October 1867. Construction was completed in November 1868.
   A cupola and bell were added in 1871. The bell, which weighed more than 1,000 pounds, replaced the triangle the city had been using to sound fire alarms, according to Mrs. Kramer’s history of the company.
   The bell and cupola were removed from the Fleetwing’s roof in 1924.
   Lambertville’s citywide fire alarms, still in service, were activated the following year.
   Gas lamps lit the firehouse until 1903 when the building was wired for electricity.