Sharpton’s NAN to Call Site of Faison Firehouse Theater Home
The Rev. Al Sharpton has bought a two-lot parcel in Harlem for the HQ of his National Action Network and plans to rename the building after his mentor, the late Rev. Jesse Jackson.
A one-time Harlem firehouse that was transformed into a local theater run by a Broadway legend will now be home to the National Action Network, the civil rights organization founded by the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN), which he founded in 1991, has been housed in rental property on W. 145th St. for more than two decades. The NAN site is active in local and national political events, and recently hosted a lineup of Democratic politicians seeking closer ties with the Black community.
Before it became a community theater, the site of what will be the new NAN HQ was a Beaux Arts-style firehouse for the Hook and Ladder Company 40 constructed in 1909. After 60 years of service, the building was unable to keep up with modern equipment and staffing needs and, like many other older firehouses during that time, was decommissioned in the 1960s.
For nearly 30 years, the decommissioned firehouse sat abandoned until Tony Award-winning choreographer George Faison, known for his work in the 1976 Broadway musical “The Wiz,” along with collaborator Tad Schnugg, came to the rescue. They purchased the firehouse at 6 Hancock Place in 1999 for $600,000 and began a multi-stage renovation, which included a downstairs theater and conversion of top-floor firefighter sleeping quarters into a residence. The space, which became the American Performing Arts Collaborative (APAC), would host music and arts events for the community. Faison founded APAC in 1997 and ran arts training and education programs, such as dance classes and theater workshops, and hosted many performances for both new and established artists.
Faison founded APAC to bring accessible arts programming to the community. He recognized that Harlem residents needed a cultural hub and hoped to contribute to Harlem’s long tradition as a center for Black arts and culture. The building hosted theater productions, dance performances, music events, art exhibitions, and supported youth arts programs through APAC.
Looking to expand the community he had already established, Faison paid $1 million to Harlem investor Fikremariam Wolde for the neighboring unit, 4 Hancock Place, in 2013. It had previously been a five-story pre-war apartment building until the mid-1950s, when it passed through a variety of owners. The space previously was used to house nurses for Columbia University Health Care Systems, which sold it to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1996. Then, it was turned over to the City of New York in 2001. At some point, the apartment building was demolished.
In 2018, after years of running the building as a community theater, Faison, then in his 70s, decided it was time to put his monumental project to rest. Schnugg, Faison’s theater co-founder, had died that year and Faison tried to sell the two-lot assemblage. Running a multi-story historic building in Harlem was not cheap. There was ongoing maintenance and repairs for the old firehouse structure, the costs of running the theater, studios, and programming spaces had increased, and heavy property taxes and utilities in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood put a financial burden on Faison.
He had asked for $13 million for the non-landmarked property, but struggled to find any buyers.
In 2021, Faison cut the asking price to $11 million but still had no luck finding a buyer.
Sharpton received a call from Faison about the listing and agreed to buy the building.
The amount the National Action Network paid for the building is unclear, since the deed in the deal has yet to hit public records. Jennifer Jones Austin, the vice chair of the National Action Network board and a poverty relief advocate who negotiated the deal, told The New York Times that the organization was expected to spend around $7 million on the property and renovations.
The building sale is more than just a weight lifted off of Faison’s back; it is pushback against the rapid gentrification of Harlem, which reportedly worried Sharpton. In Central Harlem, the Black population has dropped to roughly 50 percent in 2023 from 77 percent in 2000, according to data from New York University’s Furman Center. “Harlem was the place of political power, and that’s been decimated,” Sharpton said to The New York Times. “I hope the House of Justice represents people that will print their roots and stay right there.”