Firthcliffe Firehouse

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. 13 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1902.

From the record

“The Firthcliffe Firehouse is located along Willow Avenue in the Town of Cornwall in Orange County, New York, United States. It was built to protect the homes being built by the Firth Carpet Company for workers at its nearby plant in the early 20th century.”
Wikipedia article Firthcliffe Firehouse, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 187 National Register listings published here for Orange County · listed in 1996 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 196 Willow Ave., Cornwall, 12518
When was it listed? June 1996
Category. building
Also known as. Cornwall MPS
Town. Cornwall town
National Register reference number. 96000554 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1902 to 1994

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 92 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Firthcliffe Firehouse, surveyed 1994

Topographic sheet covering Firthcliffe Firehouse, surveyed 1902

Fires near this property

561 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 561 fires within 5 miles of Firthcliffe Firehouse between 1993 and 2020, burning about 1,078 acres in total. 33 started naturally. 51 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	352
Arson/incendiarism	51
Recreation and ceremony	36
Natural	33
Smoking	27
Equipment and vehicle use	24
Debris and open burning	23
Power generation/transmission/distribution	5
Misuse of fire by a minor	4
Fireworks	3
Other causes	2
Railroad operations and maintenance	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2016	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
8 September 2016	Recreation and ceremony	3.8 acres	Fire Department of New York	N/A
8 September 2015	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	NA
8 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
5 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
5 September 2004	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
4 September 2016	Recreation and ceremony	1.3 acres	Fire Department of New York	N/A
4 September 2014	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named

Every fire recorded in Orange County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 16 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 16 workings within 5 miles of Firthcliffe Firehouse: 12 past producers, 3 producers, 1 occurrence. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay, Stone, Iron. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Bog Meadow Pond Deposit	Zirconium	Occurrence
Tower Mine	Iron	Past Producer	Magnetite
Townsend Canterbury Mine	Iron	Past Producer	Residual
Clay Pit No. Hk-020	Clay	Past Producer	Clay
Clay Pit No. Hk-020	Clay	Past Producer
Clay Pits No. Hk-018	Clay	Past Producer	Clay
Clay Pits No. Hk-018	Clay	Past Producer
Granitic Gneiss Rock Quarry	Stone	Past Producer
Granitic Gneiss Rock Quarry	Stone	Past Producer
Granitic Gneiss Rock Quarry No. Hk-021	Stone	Past Producer	Gneiss, Granite

Every working recorded in Orange County

Maps showing this location

13 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1902 USGS Schunemunk quadrangle1:62500 - 10 printings
1930 USGS Schunemunk quadrangle1:48000
1930 USGS Schunemunk quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1935 USGS Schunemunk quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1947 USGS Cornwall quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1950 USGS Scranton quadrangle1:250000
1953 USGS Scranton quadrangle1:250000
1957 USGS Cornwall quadrangle1:24000 - 5 printings
1959 USGS Scranton quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1962 USGS Scranton quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1965 USGS Scranton quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1986 USGS Middletown quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
1994 USGS Cornwall-on-Hudson quadrangle1:24000

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Oliver Brewster House	0.1 miles	1996
Sands-Ring House	0.5 miles	1996
Cornwall Friends Meeting House	0.5 miles	1988
A. J. Clark Store	0.6 miles	1996
Daniel Sutherland House	0.6 miles	1996
Canterbury Presbyterian Church	0.7 miles	1996

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 96000554 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Orange County	All 187 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.