The Brooklyn Heights Montessori School is expanding to include the old fire patrol station at 12 Dean Street, after paying $1.9 million for the new property.

Brownstoner: According to a press release sent out on the expansion, “the fire patrol station sits directly behind BMHS’s existing Bergen Street property. It is expected that the new property will be open and ready to admit as many as 40 to 50 new students in the next two years.” The fire patrol building has an interesting history that the Eagle wrote about recently: “The Brooklyn firehouse was, in fact, one of three remaining fire fighting operations of what was once a large network belonging to the New York Board of Fire Underwriters. Fire Patrol members acted as an auxiliary force in the city for over 200 years…Despite its union’s claim that it saved $80 million worth of assets annually, the consortium of insurance companies that paid for its operation, decided it was too costly to maintain and voted to disband the last three units of the Fire Patrol in 2006.