Building of the Day: 421-431 Bond Street

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Former Empire City Hygeia Ice Company
Address: 421-431 Bond Street
Cross Streets: 3rd Street and Gowanus Canal
Neighborhood: Gowanus
Year Built: 1904
Architectural Style: Romanesque Revival
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: No, but part of proposed HD on the National Register of Historic Places

The story: If you are interested in the rise and fall of industry in Brooklyn, there are few places with more industrial history than the Gowanus area. After all, the swamps were drained and the canal was built to serve industry, and for the last hundred and sixty years, businesses have risen, prospered and fallen in this part of Brooklyn. Today, the push is away from industry and to turn many of the old factories and lofts into residences, or else tear them all down for new residences, but very few people seem to know or care what went on in those buildings in the first place. There are many fascinating buildings in Gowanus, some of which are active today as businesses, others have been converted into residential or cultural use, and some are just sitting there, boarded up or exposed to the elements, waiting.

This great Romanesque Revival factory building was first used by the Empire City Hygeia Ice Company, in 1904. There were a lot of seemingly independent ice companies in the Northeast called “Hygeia,” and I have not yet been able to determine if that was a generic name for pure factory manufactured ice, or if they were all part of a larger corporation. New York City and Brooklyn had at least six different companies called “XXXX Hygeia Ice Company.”

At any rate, they all manufactured ice in factories, as opposed to harvesting natural ice from rivers and lakes. By the beginning of the 20th century, factory ice was slowly edging out natural ice, as it could be made all year round, and could easily be transported from the factory to customers, and it could be guaranteed pure and unpolluted. Many factory ice companies also were able to escape the price gouging of the natural ice monopoly in New York City, which I wrote about in a series of Walkabouts called “It’s Nice to Be Ice.”

The Empire City Hygeia Ice Company was in business here until 1906. The building would have been divided into at least three operations. One part would have held the machinery that produced the cold that made the ice. This involved machines that pumped a lot of chemicals like ammonia and other toxic substances. There would have also been cooling rooms, whose floors were cut into molds in which the large ice blocks were made. The third part of the factory would have been storage, where the blocks were kept until they were shipped out. Empire City built a one story shipping and loading dock extension sometime in the two years they were here.

In 1906, the ice factory and shipping docks became part of the adjoining Leonhard Michel Brewing Company. They built the six story Romanesque Revival building next door. Leonhard Michel was a successful brewmeister, hailing originally from Bremen, Germany. He established the India Wharf Brewery in 1889, after working for Yeungling Brewery for 13 years. He established this micro-brewery in his own name in 1906, with his two sons as vice president and sec’y/treasurer. John Michel, the elder son, was also director of the Staten Island Hygeia Ice Corporation, so they owned at least two ice companies, plus the many ice companies associated with India Wharf.

In 1937, the brewery complex had grown to encompass the entire block, six buildings in total, the last one, on the corner of Third Street, had been built in 1935. Leonhard Michel had survived Prohibition by brewing near-beer, and died in 1926 at the age of 81. John Michel took over the running of the company. His brother had died in 1916. In 1927, the Ebling Brewery began brewing their White Horse Ale here, and by 1939 had completely taken over the operation of the brewery. Ebling was an old brewery, founded in 1868 in the Bronx, where their main brewery was located. Unfortunately, after almost a hundred years of operation, Ebling went out of business in 1950.

Since then, the complex has been broken up and has had different owners who used it for different businesses. 421-431 Bond is a handsome building with nice windows, with back views over the canal. The building is currently sealed. I wouldn’t be surprised if this one ends up being loft style condos. It would be a perfect building for it. I mean, on the face of it, who wouldn’t want to live in an old ice house overlooking a canal? It sounds wonderful. With the Gowanus, these days, who knows? GMAP

(Photo: Nicholas Strini for PropertyShark)