Building of the Day: 991-993 Fulton Street

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Originally Golden Anchor Emporium, now supermarket and apartments
Address: 991-993 Fulton Street
Cross Streets: St. James Street and Cambridge Place
Neighborhood: Clinton Hill
Year Built: 1872
Architectural Style: Italianate
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: No

The story: Cast iron facades are a pretty rare sight in Brooklyn, especially outside the retail and manufacturing centers of downtown Fulton Street or Williamsburg, where most of the other examples of these buildings can be found in the borough. Over in Manhattan, in what is now Soho, cast iron-fronted buildings make up the bulk of the commercial structures, all built between the late 1850s and the early 1890s. Like masonry architecture, cast iron facades went through different periods and styles, and their diversity reflects the stylistic changes in those 40 years.

Commercial buildings like stores, offices and warehouses were perfect for cast iron. The material became popular because, first of all, it was fire resistant, and second, much cheaper than masonry. One could achieve the look of a fine Italian Renaissance style palazzo for your business for a fraction of the cost of all those decorative elements in carved or cast stone. The cast iron facades also allowed for more fenestration and light, including large ground floor display windows in storefronts.

As cast iron-fronted buildings go, this one is very small. But it’s been home to many businesses over the years, reflecting the growth and changes in the neighborhood of Clinton Hill. The building was designed by an unknown architect or builder for Samuel B. Massa, the owner of the Golden Anchor House Furnishing Emporium. Founded in 1868, the Golden Anchor started in a shop further down at 973 Fulton Street, near Washington Avenue. That shop was in a brownstone building, and this, his new store, would be more than twice as large.

Samuel Massa named his emporium the “Golden Anchor” as a reminder of his seven years in the U.S. Navy. He imported all kinds of fancy home goods, such as such as silver-plate, china, crystal and cutlery, much of which, according to his ads, he had especially commissioned and imported exclusively for his shop. He also carried domestic goods, including lamps and baby carriages. His ads for 1871 and 72 are all about this shop, but later ads from about 1882 show that somewhere in there he outgrew this store as well, and moved downtown to the corner of Fulton Street and Flatbush Avenue, where he had a much larger space in the now demolished Music Hall Building. He may have moved out of Brooklyn entirely by 1887, as an ad for the Golden Anchor Emporium appears in a Providence, RI newspaper. The ads read just like the Brooklyn ads, and had his name on them, Samuel B. Massa.

By 1883, the ground floor of the building was home to the H. & F.H. Tasker Company, shoe dealers, as they were called in their ads. In addition to fine men’s, women’s and children’s shoes, they also made bespoke shoes, and sold other leather goods such as trunks, satchels and book bags, luggage straps and handbags. Tasker also carried all kinds of brushes, large and small, including personal grooming brushes, like toothbrushes, nail and hair brushes. Rounding out their stock were rubberized rain cloaks and boots, as well as sun and rain umbrellas. According to the Brooklyn Union, they were the “leading boot and shoe house on the Hill.”

H. & F.H. Tasker only occupied the ground floor of the building. Upstairs was rented out separately, and in 1886 was headquarters for the Central Congregational Church’s Chinese Mission School. Central Congregational was located in nearby Bedford, on Jefferson Avenue. That year, the papers did a story on a Chinese-born missionary who was going back to China to open a mission. The address was known as the “Chinese Home.”

Tasker’s must have moved out by 1890, and the building became known as the Acorn Building. No mention of the Chinese Home, but at least part of the building was now given over to billiards and pool. The basement level was known as Acorn Alleys, where many local clubs played bowling tournaments. The papers show a tourney in 1892, with others through 1905, when the “Acorn National” was played there. The Acorn Billiard Parlor was in operation in 1897. They may have been upstairs, because the street level had another sports tenant.

Just as bowling became a very popular sport in the 1890s, bicycling took the city by storm that same decade. Like today, everyone was cycling, and bicycle shops sprang up all over. Even then, there were a lot of brands to choose from, and a rather modern array of modifications and styles. This building was home to the Tonkin & Smith Company, which moved here sometime before 1898. They were bicycle dealers who sold and rented bicycles for all ages. They rented tandem bikes, too. They also stored bikes, made repairs and gave riding lessons. The store carried all kinds of bikes, and wholesaled as well. They carried expensive models that cost up to $75, and also offered payment plans of $1 a week for qualified buyers. Ads appear for them from between 1898 and 1900.

In 1905, the Eagle announced that a long lease for the building had been negotiated for the Jetter Brewing Company. They planned to open saloons, billiard parlors and bowling alleys throughout the borough, and this would be the first. The article was not clear if they simply took over the Acorn lanes, or if they made a saloon out of the ground floor. The paper trail goes cold here, and nothing else was available as to what happened to the building then or throughout the 20th century.

When I moved to Brooklyn in 1983, this was a Met Supermarket. There were two apartments above the store. The building still had its original ornate Italianate cornice, which can be seen in the 1980s tax photo. Since then, not much has changed, except the building has been painted several times, and someone removed the cornice. Since the ’80s, the supermarket has expanded to the building to the left of it, but otherwise is pretty much the same as 30 years before. Fulton Street has changed a lot since then. I would have loved to have seen it with its original ground floor facade, and I really wish they hadn’t taken down the cornice. The building looks naked. But what a history! GMAP

(Photograph: Christopher Bride for PropertyShark)