History and architecture
In making a selection of outstanding architectural monuments in New York City, the Commission could not exclude from its list of distinctive, individual monuments the iron Watch Tower, located in Mount Morris Park. This fire lookout Tower is remarkable, and its four-story octagonal structure is the last remaining one of several such towers which once stood in this Borough. It is a good example of post and lintel construction and has a quality of pristine beauty in its slender elegance, unmatched elsewhere.
For more than a century and a half there were bell towers and fire watch towers in New York City that were used to sound alarms. The forerunner of the fire watch tower was the bell tower, and the earliest one in New York dates back to 1790, when a bell was imported from England for that purpose. There was no lookout station in the early bell towers; they were structures equipped with a bell that was rung in case of a fire. Early records indicate that the first fire watch tower in New York was in the cupola of City Hall, which was used as a fire watch tower starting in 1830.
The first fire watch tower built for that purpose was the old fire tower erected in the Jefferson Market in 1832 of wood construction. (The Jefferson Market Courthouse tower was built of stone in 1875.) Some of the early towers had closed-in compartments in the upper story for protection of the watchers against inclement weather.
Sources and further reading
This history comes from the Landmarks app’s historical catalog. Names and building uses may reflect the period described.