Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Austin, Nichols & Co. Building
Address: 184 Kent Avenue
Cross Streets: North 3rd and North 4th streets
Neighborhood: Williamsburg
Year Built: 1915
Architectural Style: Egyptian Revival
Architect: Cass Gilbert
Other Buildings by Architect: Brooklyn Army Terminal, Bay Ridge. In Manhattan- Woolworth Building, U.S. Customs House, West Street Building. Also U.S. Supreme Court Building, Washington DC
Landmarked: Yes, then no. Listed on National Register of Historic Places (2007)

The story: By the first decade of the 20th century, the Austin, Nichols Company was the largest wholesale grocery business in the world. They not only wholesaled food items to retailers, institutions and other buyers, they also packaged and manufactured products, including fine foods, coffee and imported specialty items. Austin, Nichols & Company was founded in 1879, by James E. Nichols and five former associates of Fitts & Austin, a Manhattan wholesale grocery business which was founded by Fred Fitts in 1855. In the very late 19th century, the company’s headquarters was in Tribeca, which was the wholesale food district in Manhattan at that time.

Their factories were scattered all over, with manufacturing and processing plants in various locations in Lower Manhattan, Greenwich Village, and Harlem. Their largest product line was canned goods, packaged under the label “Sunbeam Foods.” Trucking goods between various locations was costly and time consuming. They desperately wanted to consolidate into one facility.

When looking at Brooklyn, the company considered other waterfront locations, but settled on Williamsburg because of the waterfront piers, the new bridge, and a large pool of potential employees in the area. The parcel of land they were considering belonged to the Havemeyer & Elder, owners of the American Sugar Company, just down the road. The Havemeyer family was developing this land, all of which was in the hands of company president, Horace Havemeyer. He resigned as president in order to work on this project, the first real estate venture outside of their own company.

Even though Austin, Nichols could have afforded it anyway, Havemeyer & Elder financed this $1 million project themselves. Horace Havemeyer worked hand in glove with the project architect, Cass Gilbert, from start to finish. Cass Gilbert was king of architects that year. He had just finished the Woolworth Building, a masterpiece in anyone’s eyes, and had previously designed the US Customs Building at Battery Park, as well as some of Manhattan’s earliest and most beautiful skyscrapers. He was a marvelously eclectic architect, who always had new ideas, and Havemeyer, who was a collector and connoisseur of the arts, appreciated the talent he was working with.

Many industrial buildings were being designed by major architects, but few with Gilbert’s pedigree. This was not Gilbert’s first warehouse commission; he had designed several for companies in the Midwest. For the Austin, Nichols Company, Gilbert designed a building that conveyed the spirit of its use. While certainly conversant in great ornament, he knew that would not work here. He designed a spare, yet elegant warehouse facility in a minimalistic version of the Egyptian Revival Style, perhaps the only warehouse building in New York City to be designed in this style.

The building would not have been possible without the knowledge of reinforced concrete that was brought to the project by Turner Construction, the company Gilbert picked to build the structure. Henry Turner had worked with Ernest Ransome, the first American builder to use reinforced concrete. They were masters of concrete, and would build many of the city’s most important concrete structures. Turner Construction had cement mixers working day and night to mix all of the concrete needed to complete this massive warehouse.

When the building was finished in 1914, it was thought to be quite modern, and was praised for its unique design and its size and massing. A reporter for the Brooklyn Eagle summed it up by saying; the gigantic plant was a “model of modern construction and efficiency, ready to supply the entire country with Pure Food products.” The Sunbeam sign soon rose over the plant, and the Austin, Nichols & Co. Company was soon in full production.

The building was a large rectangular donut, with an open center with plenty of light and windows. It had integrated piers, two railroad tracks that ran through the first floor, freight elevators, pneumatic tubes and conveyer belts that ran throughout the building. Sunbeam foods were soon being prepared, processed and packaged in the building. This included canned goods, dried fruits, nuts, olives, coffee, cheeses and peanut butter.

Austin, Nichols & Co. remained at the top of the food business well into the 1920s. They were sued for running a monopoly, but the case was dropped. Their business began to slow down after that. By the 1930s, after Prohibition, they had closed several branches and were consolidating their product line down. They sold off the grocery business to rival Francis H. Leggett & Co, and went into the liquor business, a move that proved most profitable. The company both imported various kinds of liquor and made their own. Their most famous product is Wild Turkey Bourbon, which they continue to produce today.

The factory/warehouse stayed in the company until the 1950s, the building still serving as headquarters, import office and production facilities. The building, like the entire Williamsburg waterfront, languished for many years. In 1986 it was purchased and used by many smaller companies for manufacturing as well as residential use. In 2005, the Landmarks Preservation Commission awarded the building with landmark status, mostly due to the building itself, and its creators, but also in response to the threat of a huge six story rooftop addition that would enable the owner to develop 256 condos in the new expanded building.

The fate of this building proved to be a battle royal. Opponents of the landmarking, which would have prevented the addition, were vicious in their condemnation of the building. Proponents of the designation were vocal and many, and included not only architectural and historic experts, but many Williamsburg residents, as well as pundits and politicians. Even Mayor Bloomberg, who was a great friend of development, was on the side of the preservationists.

City Councilman Simcha Felder said, “This building is a piece of trash and should be knocked down.” Michael Bloomberg said, “Preserving this site is important to the fabric of our community.” David Yassky, another City Council member from Brooklyn opined, “”I could not distinguish this warehouse from dozens of other warehouse and factory buildings on the waterfront. It just simply doesn’t deserve it. It’s a nondescript white box of a building.”

Ada Louise Huxtable, the venerable architectural critic, and never one to mince words, responded to Yassky and Felder thusly, “Of course it should be landmarked. It’s by Cass Gilbert, one of our great architects. You have people who absolutely know nothing making outrageous statements about the architectural value of the building.”
In the end, for only the fifth time in history, the City Council overturned the landmark designation. Mayor Bloomberg vetoed the Council’s reversal, and they turned around and vetoed him. The Austin Nichols Building is not a NYC landmark. Soon afterward, the owners sold the building. But it was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007, allowing the new owners to take advantage of state tax credits.

They also donated a historic preservation deed of easement to the Trust for Architectural Easements, which qualified them for the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentive Program. This enabled them to completely develop the building as apartments without destroying the exterior, or adding additional floors. Sometimes doing what’s right does pay off in the end. We the public can enjoy Cass Gilbert’s exceptionally fine and important building for generations to come.

(Photo: Dmadeo for Wikipedia)


GMAP

1916 Photograph: Museum of the City of New York
1916 photograph: Museum of the City of New York
Company Letterhead. Museum of the City of New York
Company letterhead. Museum of the City of New York
Coffee roasting room. 1916 Photograph: Museum of the City of New York
Coffee roasting room. 1916 photograph: Museum of the City of New York
Peanut butter machines. 1916 Photograph: Museum of the City of New York
Peanut butter machines. 1916 Photograph: Museum of the City of New York
Aerial view showing building center courtyard. Photograph: Google Earth
Aerial view showing building center courtyard. Photograph: Google Earth
Photograph: Cory Seamer for Brooklynrelics.com
Photograph: Cory Seamer for Brooklyn Relics

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