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September 19, 2007
Who Were the Havemeyers?
With all the attention the Domino Sugar factory has been getting in recent months, we thought it would be interesting to take a look back at the Havemeyer family that built the waterfront facility in Williamsburg and has a street named after them in the neighborhood. Here's what the book Brooklyn By Name (NYU Press, 2006) has to say about them:
Brothers Frederick C. Havemeyer (1774-1841) and William Havemeyer(1770-1851) were major industrialists who made their money in sugar processing. Arriving from Germany at the turn of the nineteenth century, they soon built a sugar refinery on Vandam Street in Manhattan. William's son, William F. (1804-1874), took over the family business in the 1830s but ventured into politics and became a three-term New York mayor. Cousin Frederick C. Havemeyer Jr. (1807-1891) stayed in the sugar trade and in 1857 established the longstanding South 3rd Street factory on the Williamsburg waterfront. His son, Henry Havemeyer (1847-1907), named the company Domino's Sugar in the early 1900s and worked to corner the market. His Sugar Refineries Company, or "Sugar Trust," functioned like Standard Oil--monopolistically (and like Standard Oil did battle with the government over makret control). An era ended in 2004 when Domino's Sugar terminated its refining operations and the East River plant (and classic signage) bearing its name. The company is now a part of the British concern Tate & Lyle.
It would be interesting to know where the Havemeyer clan lived during all this. Manhattan or Brooklyn?
Photo by Susan Stars
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Comments
Horace Havermeyer is publisher of Metropolis - yes he is a Havermeyer. Many Havermeyer paintings hang in the Met, just to broaden the context a bit.
Posted by: guest at September 19, 2007 10:55 AM
The driving force behind the American Sugar Refining Company was Henry Osborne Havemeyer. The family resided in Manhattan and had an estate in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Posted by: guest at September 19, 2007 11:08 AM
Harry Havemeyer had a huge Romanesque mansion at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 66th. It was knocked down and now a fancy dancy Candela apartment building sits there, housing multiple rich folks, rather than just one ritzy family.
Posted by: Carol Gardens at September 19, 2007 11:21 AM
The new exhibit at the Met features many old masters that were purchased by Mr & Mrs Havemeyer (she in particular was a force of nature evidently)in the 1870-90 period. They formed the early core of the museum's collection.
The Havermeyers were keen on Cuban sugar cane and Dutch fine art.
Posted by: sam at September 19, 2007 11:34 AM
The Havermeyer House on Fifth Avenue and 66th Street was designed by the somewhat eccentric architect Charles Coolidge Haight.
It resembled the old Chateau-style hospital on Central Park West and 103rd Street, also by Haight, that was recently so apectacularly restored. He was big on medieval Christian mysticism.
The interiors of the house were by Tiffany's.
Too bad it was demolished. Had they lived in Brooklyn, their house may have survived, but maybe not.
One of the Havermeyers was mayor of NYC, several times I think.
Posted by: guest at September 19, 2007 11:57 AM
Where did they get the sugar in the late 1700's and early 1800's? Brooklyn? Manhattan? Should they have a street named after them? Can you give a little more background on how they acquired their loot? While at it can we get some detailed background on Gates, Nostrand, Flatbush, Halsey, Fulton and Jefferson and all their great deeds?
Posted by: guest at September 19, 2007 11:57 AM
Who was Grand at that interection?
Posted by: guest at September 19, 2007 11:59 AM
As an earlier poster mentioned, they got the sugar from Cuban plantations.
Slavery was legal in cuba until 1890. Cuba and Brazil (the two biggest sugar producers) were the last north and south American countries to ban slavery. just FYI.
Posted by: guest at September 19, 2007 12:10 PM
As an earlier poster mentioned, they got the sugar from Cuban plantations.
Slavery was legal in cuba until 1890. Cuba and Brazil (the two biggest sugar producers) were the last north and south American countries to ban slavery. just FYI.
Just wanted to make sure it wasn't ill gotten gains and you clarified that, Einstein. They earned it the good old fashioned way. Would you have any info on their plantations in Cuba and elsewhere and the number of slaves they owned? These Havemeyers were such good people, afterall that is how it was then.
Posted by: guest at September 19, 2007 1:08 PM
Well, I don't know about "good".
They bought good art. But they were robber-barons. They created a sugar monopoly. They were supporters of Tammany Hall and the Boss Tweed crowd. So good? -no. But you are correct to say that was how money was made then. They followed the mores of their day. And they did give away a lot of top notch art to the Met.
Posted by: guest at September 19, 2007 1:39 PM
I always find it hard to respect people who follow the mores of any time when such mores are cruel, savage and barbaric; but the top notch art squared things.
Posted by: guest at September 19, 2007 2:01 PM
cruel, savage, and barbaric institutions and governments are still very much with us.
You could argue that today, Cuba is one big plantation and all the citizens are the property of the governing elite. But it's paradise compared to North Korea or Darfur.
Philanthropy has always been a way that the too-rich atone for their sins and those of their forebears. It's a good thing and something that the New York oligarchs were very good at. Many of our cultural institutions: the Met, the Morgan, the Frick,the Public Library, the Guggenheim, the Public Theater, on and on were started by the Robber Barons. So yes, generous robber barons are far superior in my eyes to cheap, miserly ones.
Posted by: guest at September 19, 2007 2:31 PM
So, if they killed your parents and gave someone else a picture when they got old you would be even?
Posted by: guest at September 19, 2007 2:45 PM
Can we call them genocidal barons, that is more accurate? You said philanthropy but I think you should say hypocrisy.
Considering guys like Havemeyer killed everyone where they landed, and imported others to work - in their case for over a century without pay - they make Fidel look like a saint.
Posted by: guest at September 19, 2007 2:51 PM
We know Iraq was invaded for Hlliburton, can someone find out how many countries were invaded for the Havemeyers and their buddies over at United Fruit? 700,000 dead in Iraq Dick Cheney is going to have to do some serious painting.
Posted by: guest at September 19, 2007 3:15 PM
Dick Cheney can paint my a*s.
Posted by: guest at September 19, 2007 9:14 PM
Some might argue that life in Cuba for Cubans of color and the Cuban underclass are better under Castro than they were under Bautista. It was the white Cuban's who were the most upset with the revolution because their reign of economic and social inequality would come to a end. I am not a Communist but there is another side to the Cuban story other than the story told by the previously wealthy white Cubans who were kicked out and now live in Miami. Anyway, the Havemeyers supported slavery in Cuba, Panama, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. That's at least four. I am sure there are many more.
Posted by: guest at September 19, 2007 11:13 PM
Some people really believe everything they hear from people who are even more stupid than they are. We KNOW that Iraq was invaded for Halliburton? How do we know that? Were you privy to the government councils that made the decision or do you sit on the Halliburton board? You can believe whatever you want but don't claim that your opinion is fact unless you have something other than speculation to back it up.
Posted by: guest at September 20, 2007 11:22 AM
hi my name is Amanda Mundy. my greatgrand fathers wifes family is the havemeyers. I was just wondering if there is anyways i can contact them so that i can learn some of my family history. if anyone could give me information that would be absolutly amazing.
Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 10:55 AM
hi my name is Amanda Mundy. my greatgrand fathers wifes family is the havemeyers. I was just wondering if there is anyways i can contact them so that i can learn some of my family history. if anyone could give me information that would be absolutly amazing.
Posted by: guest at May 20, 2008 10:55 AM
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