Some of NYC’s fire alarms, now being gradually grandfathered and attritioned out of existence because of the mobile phone networks, have been in place since very early in the century. This one on Broadway in Elmhurst, Queens, still sports an original shaft that formerly held an alarm light notifying passersby of the presence of an alarm. Since the first of these alarms was installed in 1912, it probably was installed within a decade of that. The sidewalk has been replaced so many times that the base is completely buried.
ELMHURST FIRE ALARM
