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“I
received this list today of industries that have been here
historically. These are not necessarily the ones that exist
today. The Arbuckle Coffee Mill occupied the Empire Stores
for a number of years.
E.W. Bliss Machine Works….the main building was located
at 135 Plymouth Street, which is now the Chamber Paper Fiber
Building. They made machinery and ammunitions, and what’s
interesting about that building is that there’s actually a
building within a building. The interior building held the
gunpowder, so that if it exploded, it wouldn’t explode out
onto the street. And then they also had a foundry on Water
Street. The Brooklyn White Lead Company was located on Jay
Street between Front and York. The Jehovah’s Witnesses razed
the entire block, including P.S. 7, which was on the National
Register of Historic Places. Al Capone went to school there.
That building had just recently been renovated for residential
use. Anyway the Jehovah’s Witnesses razed the entire block,
so it’s empty now.
“There
was a lot of paint works, bookbinding, handkerchiefs, bottles,
Grand Union Tea Company, breweries. Oh yes, the Eskimo Pie
building, which was originally the Thompson Meter Building,
and according to the architectural historians who were touring
today, it is the most important example of terra cotta and
the French technique of concrete construction in America.
There’ve been efforts to landmark that buiding because it’s
been threatened for a number of years, however it’s rumored
that the owner refuses, so we don’t know what’s going to happen
with that. “Typewriters,
Coffee Roasting, Jewelry. Kirkman and Son Soap Company – until
last year that building still had the painted signs from over
a hundred years ago (it was built in 1883), and the person
who bought the building just painted it white last year. Benjamin
Moore started here on Water Street, on the other side of Bridge.
Their building was built by William Tubby, who is apparently
a very important Brooklyn Architect. Lots of coffee, varnish,
paint, metal stamps, paper bags, boilers, gas and electric
fixtures. “The
Gair industrial complex which is owned by David Walentas the
developer, was a cardboard box manufacturer, and I think during
the heyday of Gair that little area was called
Gairville. And then the Zaracas Sons Macaroni Company, it’s
a 1930’s building on Front Street, it’s now got something
to do with cars. And then there are a lot of industries existing
today, brush makers, metal stampers, transfer station. And
a lot of new manufacturing with the influx of artists and
craftspeople. So manufacturing is as prosperous as ever here,
it’s just sort changing face and scale.”
“I’m interested in this idea that there’s this concept since the whole SOHO phenomenon that former industrial space, or production space, will turn into consumption space: residences and shops and that kind of thing. "What interests me is turning formerly productive space into a new kind of productive space from an economic development perspective, and from an urban diversity perspective even more than that.” “When I first moved in eighteen years ago, there were still plenty of ships here. That I miss, that maritime context. For a year we had the battleship Iowa, which was kind of an intriguing neighbor to have, but really gave you the sense that this was a functioning, viable port. In the absence of that, not a lot has happened.” |
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