Tower Ladder 13 is located at 159 East 85 street in the Yorkville section of Manhattan. Tower Ladder 13 shares quarters with Engine 22 and Battalion 10. Their response area is from E70th street to E99th street between the East River in the east and Central Park in the west.

Yorkville is a neighborhood made up of brownstones, old law tenements, multiple dwellings, high rises, schools, hospitals and museums. Gracie Mansion is also in the first due response area of TL13, E22 and B10.

Ladder 13 was organized on October 11, 1865 in the old volunteer firehouse of Cornelius Anderson Hook and Ladder 10 at 159 E87th street. Ladder 13 is a charter member of the FDNY and was for a time, a double ladder company. Their second section was organized on March 1, 1907 and was disbanded on December 31, 1915.

An interesting chapter of Yorkville’s firefighting history is the fact that on February 1, 1909, Engine 89 and Ladder 39 were organized in an old warehouse at First Avenue and E94th street due to a major arson problem in the area. They remained there until January 1, 1916, when Ladder 39 moved to E233rd street in the Bronx and Engine 89 was closed and years later was reorganized in the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx.

On March 3, 1960, Tower Ladder 13 moved from E87th street into their current quarters, with Engine 22, Squad 9 and Battalion 10. Squad 9 was disbanded on July 1, 1967 and its members were used to organize Engine 85 in the Bronx. Engine 85 was disbanded in the early 1980’s and its members used to organize Ladder 53 on City Island.

In the late 1950’s, the population of Yorkville was expanding rapidly and the firehouses in Yorkville were slowly deteriorating. City planners actually considered housing Ladder 13, Engine 22, Engine 44 and Battalion 10 in the same quarters in the vicinity of 3^rd avenue and 85^th/86^th street. After an extensive study, Engine 44 remained at 221 E75th street and the others merged together.

Ladder 13 received its first motorized apparatus in 1924 - an American LaFrance, 75ft wooden aerial ladder. The company continued its designation as an aerial ladder (including a 144ft Mack-Magirus in 1961-1963) until the emergence of the tower ladder in the early 1970’s. Ladder 13 received their first tower ladder in 1971 and currently operates with their 2000 Mack 75ft Tower Ladder.

Approaching its 141st Anniversary in the year 2006, Ladder 13 is still going strong as the “PRIDE OF YORKVILLE”