Save Queens' Antique Fire Alarms, Forest Hills Preservationist Pleads

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS – A Forest Hills preservationist is fighting to save squat red monuments to New York's bravest he says the city has quietly begun to remove.

Michael Perlman raised the alarm this weekend in a change.org petition — which has since garnered more than 200 signatures — over Queens' antique FDNY box pedestals he wants the city to designate as historic landmarks.

“These are artifacts exhibiting superb craftsmanship and they also bear homage to New York’s bravest,” Perlman told Patch. “The preservation of our historic street art and architecture, as well as our heritage, is essential.”

The FDNY did not immediately respond to a request to comments or confirm the removals.

The petition — addressed to the FDNY, Landmarks Preservation Commission and Mayor's office, among other municipal agencies — calls on the city to spare the monuments of "Beaux Arts meets Art Nouveau splendor."

Perlman said he fears this move toward modernity could threaten pedestals recently brought beyond their former glory by local handyman John "The Fire Alarm Guy" Colgan, who has been restoring the boxes since 2012.

A prime example stands on the corner of 67th Avenue and Queens Boulevard, where an alarm box that dates back to 1929 was recently restored by Colgan, Perlman said in an op-ed for the Queens Ledger.

Colgan strips, primes, paints and decorates the alarm boxes to showcase their historic detail, Perlman said. The process can take months.

"I'm worried they're just going to melt them down instead of selling them" Colgan told Patch. "It seems like such a waste of history."

Perlman, who is also the author of “Legendary Locals of Forest Hills and Rego Park,” said that an antique box in Woodside was recently removed and replaced with a different model this fall.

Forest Hills and Rego Park residents can still find some of these box pedestals along Queens Boulevard, between 62nd Avenue, 63rd Avenue, 66th Avenue, 67th Avenue, and other locations.

Perlman's plea for support did not go unanswered and he secured 223 signatures to his petition as of Monday afternoon from Queens residents who left messages of solidarity on the change.org site.

"They are NYC history and belong on the streets of NYC as the beautiful adornments they are," RevChas Fristachi wrote. Added Anne Leighton, "Old-fashioned is beautiful."