NYPD Bomb Squad Relocating

By Brian J Pape, AIA, LEED-AP

The West Village is losing the NYPD Bomb Squad, an iconic institution. The Bomb Squad has operated out of the Sixth Precinct building at 233 West 10th Street, since it was built in 1970. The 2-story brick building goes through the block to the one-story 104 Charles Street, adjacent to their parking lot, with large overhead doors facing Charles Street.

As reported in the Historic District report of 1969, the Sixth Precinct building was built where the Village Garage stood since 1918. Before that, a screwbolt manufactory was located on this site.

Interestingly, next door at 102 Charles Street is a ‘delightful’ brick firehouse built in 1854 as a house for Samuel D. Chase, who then sold the property to the City of New York the next year. The City wished to house their new fire company next to the new Ninth Precinct police station at 100 Charles Street. The city’s architect made an excellent conversion in the Italianate style, with double doors for the fire trucks surmounted by a handsome arched pediment of sandstone, and with similar arched pediments over the windows of the two upper floors, as it remains today. The Ninth Precinct station was demolished for an apartment block. 102 Charles is now a retail shop with residences above once again.

Many West Villagers may not be aware of the importance of this historic bomb squad, the oldest, busiest and most sophisticated squad in the world. For more than 100 years, NYPD bomb technicians have combated explosive-related violence and threats, often risking (and sometimes losing) their own lives in the process. The NYPD Bomb Squad traces its origins to the famous — if short-lived — Italian Squad, which successfully defeated Black Hand extortionists who terrorized Italian immigrants living in New York at the turn of the last century. Giuseppi “Joseph” Petrosino, an immigrant from Salerno who became the NYPD’s first Italian-American detective, waged a valiant battle against the Black Hand, a loosely-knit criminal organization that extorted money from Italian immigrants. He founded the NY Bomb Squad, the first unit of its kind in the United States, to counter the Black Hand’s use of explosives in carrying out its threats. From 1905, Petrosino and the “Italian Branch,” an elite corps of Italian-American undercover cops, arrested thousands of members of the Black Hand, deported 500 and reduced crime against Italian-Americans by half. Petrosino was murdered in 1909 in Palermo, Italy, where he had gone to gather intelligence about Black Hand members. Lt. Petrosino’s funeral was attended by 200,000 people, and the vast funeral procession lasted five and a half hours. He was the only NYPD officer killed in line of duty outside the U.S.

Petrosino Square at Lafayette and Kenmare streets is commemorated to Lt. Joseph Petrosino.

This history goes on to include the first large-vehicle bomb on American soil (targeting J.P. Morgan Bank at Wall Street), anarchist bombings, plots by German saboteurs during World War I, the famed Black Tom explosion, the bombing of the 1939 World’s Fair, crimes of the so-called Mad Bomber, IEDs placed by Croatian and Palestinian terrorists, the relentless terror campaign of the FALN, anti-abortion bombings, the first World Trade Center bombing, and the attempted car bombing of Times Square by Islamic radicals.

The NY Bomb Squad is a part of the New York Police Department’s Detective Bureau’s Forensic Investigative Division (FID), which includes the police lab, the latent print section, the firearms analysis section, and the Crime Scene Unit. As well-documented by Richard Esposito and Ted Gerstein in Bomb Squad: A Year Inside the Nation’s Most Exclusive Police Unit, published 2007 by Hyperion Books, the squad and its protocols became fully modernized in 1940.

Despite the fact that the NY Bomb Squad officers hold the rank of detective, they prefer the title “bomb technician.” For the younger bomb technicians, the initial training process takes two years. It begins months before any NYPD apprentice bomb tech is even sent to the U.S. Army-FBI Hazardous Devices School in Huntsville, Alabama, where he or she earns their “license to die” in a five-week basic course. The job of a bomb technician is to stop a bomb from going off. In the first 100 years of the NY Bomb Squad, six bomb technicians had been killed on duty, including Det. Danny Richards (see previous page).

It’s not unusual to get over 2,000 calls for the NY Bomb Squad every year. The training never stops.

Shelved in the squad’s Sixth Precinct basement is a history of thousands of devices successfully defused.

The NYPD detectives union says 22 of the bomb squad’s 45 officers have reached 20 years of service and could retire this year. The union president says the retirements could threaten the city’s 24-hour bomb protection and the bomb-sniffing dogs and their expensive training as well. The number of detectives has fallen steadily since 2020, losing about 8% of its ranks. In March, NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, said, “The department is in a ‘hiring crisis,’” and lowered education standards in order to boost recruitment. A spokesperson for the department said it is working to keep the unit staffed.

Now, the NYPD is relocating its Bomb Squad to larger quarters in Chelsea at 241 West 26th Street, between Seventh and Eighth avenues. Originally built in 1930 as a six-story structure that operated as a parking garage, this relocation project involves renovations to the structure’s 37,725 square feet on all levels. As reported by Michael Young in the NIMBY Blogsite on April 14, 2025, Tori Operating Corp. is listed as the owner of the site.

The exterior is largely of red brick with intricate bond patterns, carved stone blocks forming the roof parapet, and white stone with ornamental Art Deco reliefs being restored. Modest modifications to this historic exterior will retain the façade’s character, while accommodating the NY Bomb Squad functions and archives.

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The Honor of Co-named Streets

Detective Richards Way

People have been honored here in New York with co-naming of streets or places for them. Look for the special green signs below the other street signs and check out nycstreets.info/honorstreet.