Seeking to preserve a plain brick firehouse with a painful history

There is an old red brick, neo-Georgian building in Elmhurst, Queens, that looks like a firehouse from a movie studio lot: two truck bays with roll-down red doors — side by side, for engine and ladder — under four tall windows and an entablature embossed with the city seal.

There is also an old red brick, neo-Georgian building in Maspeth, Queens, that looks like a firehouse from a movie studio lot: two truck bays with roll-down red doors — side by side, for engine and ladder — under four tall windows and an entablature embossed with the city seal.

Only one is being discussed as a possible New York City landmark.

What’s the difference?

The Maspeth firehouse, Hazardous Materials Company 1, Squad 288, commands a direct view of Lower Manhattan, six miles to the west....