Still haven't found that post-holiday gift for the nostalgic fire buff who has everything? Check out this potential bargain: the door to a surplus vintage 1925 fire alarm box. It's being auctioned by New York City, with a minimum opening bid of $50.
Neither gift wrapping nor delivery is included. The faded red door is described as in “fair†condition, but the pull handle and the mechanism attached to it still appear to work, if the video above is accurate.
The alarm box, No. 5743, used to be located at 121st Avenue and 197th Street in St. Albans, Queens.
“The alarm box was used by residents to alert the F.D.N.Y. of a fire,†says the description on the Web site of publicsurplus.com, which is running the sale for the Departm ent of Citywide Administrative Services.
A decade ago, there were still more than 15,000 fire alarm boxes, but given the proliferation of cellphones and the availability of the 911 emergency number, the Fire Department deemed many of the boxes superfluous and prone to false alarms. At last count, there were about 14,000.
The online auction began Wednesday and runs through at least Jan 23. As of Friday evening, no one had placed a bid.
