NYC Fire Museum in danger of shutting down for good after $6M Disney construction damage

Yahoo

05-04-2025

Mickey Mouse shut down the city's Fire Museum — and it may need to wish upon a star to ever open again.
Construction on Disney's new, 22-story New York City headquarters at Hudson Street caused what the city said was nearly $6 million in 'significant structural damage' to the neighboring Spring Street museum, forcing it to close for nearly a year.
The museum opened in 1987 and operates out of an historic, 120-year-old firehouse once used by Engine Co. 30. It features 30,000 artifacts stretching back to the days of the bucket brigade, along with a memorial to the 343 NYC firefighters killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
'Excessive vibrations' from the work last May were the nail in the coffin for the historic Beaux-Arts building, prompting an emergency evacuation, according to the Manhattan Supreme Court filing by the city.
Terrified staff preparing to open for a day that included a birthday party for 30 kids called executive director Patti Murphy in a panic.
'They said they heard a loud banging, the building started to shake and then they said to me the floor felt soft,' Murphy recalled to The Post.
The frightening incident forced the building to shut down to visitors for 11 months — leaving the institution in crisis, Murphy said.
Murphy said the museum plans to launch a public fundraising effort in the upcoming weeks. 'We need immediate support,' said Murphy.
'We're a very small nonprofit, we're a self-sustaining organization so our operations are pretty much in a dire position because we've been closed so long,' she added.
The Museum took in about $571,000 in fiscal year 2023-2024, far short of its target of more than $772,000, it said in its annual report.
At the moment, the building is 'structurally sound and stable,' but only a small number of staff is permitted inside on a limited basis and visitors are not allowed, Murphy said.
The city intends to sue Hudson Square Realty and construction companies Skanska Inc. and Lendlease US Construction Inc. over the allegedly 'negligent' work, according to papers filed March 28.
Murphy's been trying to figure out how to preserve and safeguard the museum's collection — which includes everything from a 1901 La France coal-fired steam engine to firefighting tools like the Jaws of Life — during a hoped-for remediation of the building, but has no timeline for when the work can get done or when the museum can reopen.
'That in and of itself is very costly and complicated,' she said of preparing the collection. 'We're so small that we don't readily have the resources and subject matter, the expertise to undertake something like this.'
The closure couldn't have come at a worse time, Murphy said, since she expected the sparkling new Disney building, which opened in December, to bring more people to the museum.
'We're really hopeful that we're going to be working toward an amicable resolution,' she said. 'There's a lot of excitement about them being in Hudson Square.'
Disney, which plunked down $650 million in 2018 for the Hudson Square property, bragged about its 1.2 million-square-foot headquarters, calling the building 'a collaborative town square in the bustling city.'
'Construction work at the site of the new Disney HQ caused damage to the FDNYs historic building, which is home to the NYC Fire Museum,' a city Law Department spokesman said in a statement. 'This filing protects the City's rights while we work with Disney and its insurers to determine whether we can resolve this matter without further litigation.'
A Disney spokesperson said the company has been working with the city 'to address any damage that may have been caused,' adding, 'we understand this filing was simply part of a legal process to ensure those conversations can continue.'
Skanska had concluded its work on the project in summer 2020, a spokesman said. Lendlease and Hudson Square Realty did not immediately respond to requests for comment.