240-244 8th St. Higgins Ink, NS, PS

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Higgins Ink Building
Address: 240-244 8th Street
Cross Streets: 4th and 5th avenues
Neighborhood: Park Slope
Year Built: 1898
Architectural Style: Romanesque Revival
Architect: Stone Brothers
Other Buildings by Architect: Factory and warehouse buildings in Dumbo and elsewhere
Landmarked: No

The story: The Charles M. Higgins Company, manufacturer of Higgins India Ink, was founded in 1880 by an Irish immigrant who came to the U.S. in 1860, eager to make his mark in his new country. Charles Higgins was a naturally curious and inventive man. In 1875, he patented a screw pegging machine, which led to a job at the Scientific News as a patent solicitor – a salesman who finds marketable inventions worthy of a patent. Higgins Ink company lore has it that Charles was fooling around with different ink formulas in his sister’s kitchen in New York, when he invented Higgins India Ink and Eternal Black Ink. He founded his company in 1880, and the rest is history. Higgins ink became the universal ink used around the world.

Mr. Higgins chose an unlikely headquarters for his company, a Second Empire mansion built in 1857 for banker William Croynyn. It was located in the southern part of Park Slope, on 9th Street, between 4th and 5th avenues. Soon after setting up offices there, he had a small, five story factory built in the lot directly behind the house.

The year was 1898, and 4th Avenue was becoming a commercial hub, especially going towards Bush Terminal in Sunset Park. It was still an odd place to place a factory, in the middle of a residential block full of modest brick row houses, frame houses and tenement buildings. There would have been a large pool of potential workers who wouldn’t have to commute very far, and perhaps that’s why he chose this location.

The factory was designed and built by the Stone Brothers. They were successful builders and developers who mostly specialized in factories and warehouses. Edward Stone was the architect, and his brother William was the builder on all of their projects. The company was responsible for eleven factory and warehouse buildings in the Dumbo Historic District alone, and built similar projects across Brooklyn.

It seems unlikely that this five story factory would be invisible, but it was, at least in print. Since the company headquarters was 271 9th Street, that address was used for everything pertaining to the factory, as well. There is really nothing with the 8th Street address attached to the building in print, until it was converted into housing.

The Higgins family ran the company for several generations. In 1941, Tracy Higgins, the president of the company, changed the company name to Higgins Ink Company, Inc. The Brooklyn Eagle has advertisements for various kinds of workers up until it stopped publishing in 1954. In 1947, starting unskilled female workers were making $30 a week, at around 60 cents an hour. They were up to $40 a week by 1954. A look at similar ads on the same page of the paper shows that was the going rate for women and girls in unskilled factory jobs.

The Higgins Ink Company was eventually bought out by the Stanford Ink Company, before that company was purchased by Chartpak in 2008. This factory was closed sometime in the late ’50s or early ’60s. The years between the closing and the conversion to housing are murky. The sales records don’t go back past 1970 online, and it shows the building belonging to the state or city at that time. Park Slope was redlined then, and more than likely, the building was either empty, or had one or more small manufacturing or storage businesses there.

The early 1980s saw the “rebirth” of Park Slope. The homeowners buying brownstones and a renewed interest in the neighborhood brought the banks back into the picture, as they lined up to take advantage of new mortgage opportunities. What redlining? That wasn’t us. The utilities were there too, most famously with Brooklyn Union Gas’ Cinderella Program, which sponsored rehabbing of homes, stores and apartment buildings.

Not to be left out, Con Edison also began a sponsorship program called the Renaissance Program, aimed initially at Park Slope. The old Higgins Ink factory became of its first pet projects. In 1982, this building was purchased and redeveloped as 10 middle-income co-op apartments. Some of the building’s tenants have been here since the late 1980s. This was one of the first adaptive use buildings in this part of Brooklyn. It’s a handsome factory building, and probably a great place to live.

(Photograph:Nicholas Strini for PropertyShark)

GMAP

1945 Brooklyn Eagle Ad
1945 Brooklyn Eagle Ad
1947 Brooklyn Eagle Ad
1947 Brooklyn Eagle Ad
Photo: Google Maps
Photo: Google Maps

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