Firehouse Cooking: Historical Framework: New York as a Model

The Fire Department of New York was established in 1865 when funds were first allotted for standardizing the numerous community-supported volunteer companies in the area. Early professional firefighters worked and lived together in the firehouse, originally working nine twenty-four-hour days followed by a tenth day off. The firefighters were allotted three hours of breaks per day, which could be divided among one, two, or three meals, depending largely on the distance between the firehouse and the firefighter’s home. These breaks would be suspended in the event of a major fire. Early professional firefighters walked or bicycled home or to local eating houses for meals and cooked in the firehouse only for festive occasions. The most common of these occasions was the Saturday night chowder, for which pots, utensils, and items of decor were collected from firefighters’ homes, and the men chipped in for the food to have a firehouse-cooked meal open to family and friends.