Uploaded December 2011 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
February 24, 1902 Edison Manufacturing Co.
Direction: Edwin S. Porter
Camera: James Blair Smith
An Edison actuality featuring New York City's bravest taming the smoldering remains of George Durland's Riding Academy on Manhattan's west side. This film was later re-titled and marketed as 'Firemen Fighting the Flames at Paterson', a much bigger fire in New Jersey with a greater notoriety but no cameraman. Some early films used actors and stage sets to tell stories inter-cut with actualities of fire fighters and others in action. Dobson's 1906 film 'Skyscrapers of New York' is one such work with building construction as the backdrop.
Durland's Riding Academy, home to the New York Riding Club, was located on the north side of Grand Circle (renamed 'Columbus' in 1905) at Central Park South in Manhattan (W.60th St. & 8th Ave.) The academy was built in 1887 but was abandoned after subway tunnel construction beneath the building apparently weakened the foundation. After this fire of undetermined cause, plans were proposed by the American & London Hippodrome Company to build a hippodrome theater on the property but this never happened. Trump International stands on the site today.
In 1901, Durland had a new stable designed and built by Henry Kilburn at 7 W.66th St. Today the original orange Roman brick facade of this second Durland academy is visible after having been exposed and restored in the 1990s. Along with other competing stables and academies in the vicinity, Durland did brisk business in what was still an essential part of transportation though it was beginning to change. By 1905 the city's horse drawn omnibuses and cable cars were entirely replaced with electric trolleys. Horses remained the major mode of transportation for fire, sanitation, livery and trade delivery until 1917. -TR
From Columbus Circle "[a] typical horseback or carriage excursion in those days went up through Central Park to West 72d Street, west to Riverside Park, north through that park, east to the Harlem River and then north through the Bronx or back down Seventh Avenue into Central Park."
-source NYT March 28, 1999: tinyurl.com/ck4ucvb
A piece written in 1893 about the 'Fire Laddies' of New York: nycisee.blogspot.com/2010/01/fire-laddies-of-new-york.html
01/01/12 - 57
February 24, 1902 Edison Manufacturing Co.
Direction: Edwin S. Porter
Camera: James Blair Smith
An Edison actuality featuring New York City's bravest taming the smoldering remains of George Durland's Riding Academy on Manhattan's west side. This film was later re-titled and marketed as 'Firemen Fighting the Flames at Paterson', a much bigger fire in New Jersey with a greater notoriety but no cameraman. Some early films used actors and stage sets to tell stories inter-cut with actualities of fire fighters and others in action. Dobson's 1906 film 'Skyscrapers of New York' is one such work with building construction as the backdrop.
Durland's Riding Academy, home to the New York Riding Club, was located on the north side of Grand Circle (renamed 'Columbus' in 1905) at Central Park South in Manhattan (W.60th St. & 8th Ave.) The academy was built in 1887 but was abandoned after subway tunnel construction beneath the building apparently weakened the foundation. After this fire of undetermined cause, plans were proposed by the American & London Hippodrome Company to build a hippodrome theater on the property but this never happened. Trump International stands on the site today.
In 1901, Durland had a new stable designed and built by Henry Kilburn at 7 W.66th St. Today the original orange Roman brick facade of this second Durland academy is visible after having been exposed and restored in the 1990s. Along with other competing stables and academies in the vicinity, Durland did brisk business in what was still an essential part of transportation though it was beginning to change. By 1905 the city's horse drawn omnibuses and cable cars were entirely replaced with electric trolleys. Horses remained the major mode of transportation for fire, sanitation, livery and trade delivery until 1917. -TR
From Columbus Circle "[a] typical horseback or carriage excursion in those days went up through Central Park to West 72d Street, west to Riverside Park, north through that park, east to the Harlem River and then north through the Bronx or back down Seventh Avenue into Central Park."
-source NYT March 28, 1999: tinyurl.com/ck4ucvb
A piece written in 1893 about the 'Fire Laddies' of New York: nycisee.blogspot.com/2010/01/fire-laddies-of-new-york.html
01/01/12 - 57
