Firehouse 12

Once an important fire station for city of New Haven, this building has been restored into one of the city’s most modern and popular spaces for music and nightlife. It is a brick, Beaux-Arts classical style building with stone details sitting in New Haven’s Ninth Square. The building originally served as a fire station from 1905-1961, and it was renovated between 2002 and 2005 into its current use as a restaurant, bar, state-of-the-art music recording studio/concert venue, and loft living space. A more recent renovation included the addition of a three bedroom apartment, added to the roof of the building and available for rent on AirBnB. The renovations of this building were part of the city’s attempt to revitalize the Ninth Square.

New Haven Fire Department (Engine 12): 1905-1961

Originally, this plot was partially occupied by a shed, which is seen on Sanborn insurance maps of 1886 and 1901 (4, 5). The construction of the fire station was completed in 1905, and “Fire Dep’t. Eng. Co. No. 12” makes its first appearance on the 1923 Sanborn map (11). This building is unlabeled in the 1973 Sanborn map, after the department was disbanded (12). Since then, renovations were completed in 2005 to revitalize the building and 2016 for the addition of the apartments (3).

The New Haven Department of Fire Service - No. 12 occupied 47 Crown St. for over 55 years (1905-1961), serving the Ninth Square District and beyond. The fire engines (at this time these were horses pulling water or trucks powered by steam) occupied the first floor, and the second floor was the hayloft for the horses (2). After the department was disbanded, the building remained vacant (3) for over 40 years. During this time, as with other vacant buildings in the area, the building became home to many squatters, and it began to fall apart with age and misuse.

The Ninth Square District went through a season of urban renewal in the 1980s-early 2000s to restore vacant buildings and encourage more foot traffic in the area (6). The success of the project has increased commerce in the area, with 94% of retail spaces leased as of 2016, and the cleaned-up district has become popular among artists and people of varied incomes (6). Firehouse 12 was one of these revamped vacant buildings, and the city sought proposals in 2002 for its reuse. Nick Lloyd and Megan Craig submitted a plan to restore the building (now labeled as 45 Crown St.) into the musician’s haven that it is today, and renovations were finished in 2005 (7). Because of the city’s conditions for sale, the owners also had to live in the building for seven years, so a large loft was built as their new home (3).  

Firehouse 12 has seen success as a bar and restaurant, winning many accolades for best bartender in New Haven (8). The state-of-the-art recording studio was designed by John Storyk, who also designed Jimmy Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios (9), and its record label fits a niche audience and set of performers in experimental jazz. Outside of the jazz world, the studio has also been used for recording audio books and a cappella groups from the nearby Yale University (10). The studio also serves as a performance venue, and it hosts a spring and fall jazz festival every year (9). The upstairs living space was converted into a loft for rent (usually to musicians playing or recording at the studio) after the required seven years’ of residence by the owners was complete. The addition of the top floor (an architectural feat in which 10 pieces made of cross-laminated timber panels were attached to and assembled on the roof in just one day) expanded the rentable space to include 3 more bedrooms (2), all with access to a stunning roof-top view of downtown New Haven.

Overall, Firehouse 12 is a great example of a Ninth Square urban renewal success story, and it serves as an inspiration both for other businesses downtown and for aspiring architects at Yale and beyond.

Firehouse 12 is in the middle of new Haven’s Ninth Square, a commercial district that has been improved and redeveloped over the last thirty years. This has always been a more commercial, previously manufacturing-oriented part of the city, as seen in Sanborn maps dating back to 1886 (4) and now the building is surrounded by businesses, including restaurants, cafes, and small retailers, as well as lots of parking space.