Bushwick

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Private house
Address: 1010 Bushwick Avenue
Cross Streets: Grove and Linden Streets
Neighborhood: Bushwick
Year Built: 1915
Architectural Style: Dutch Revival
Architect: Walter B. Wills
Other buildings by architect: Many tenement buildings and rowhouses in neighborhood, 1180-1184 Bushwick, 1144-46 Bushwick, next door free standing house at 1014 Bushwick.
Landmarked: No, but part of a proposed Bushwick Avenue HD

The story: Bushwick is long overdue for an historic district. The most sensible place to arrange one would be to landmark a goodly stretch of Bushwick Avenue, along with some adjacent side streets. Here we find an eclectic collection of buildings, ranging from huge, ornate mansions to humble tenements, and everything in between. There are also churches, clubhouses, institutions, and other community buildings that help to make a neighborhood home, not just a collection of buildings. (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Former Machine House for the Ulmer Brewery complex
Address: 43 Belvidere Street
Cross Streets: Corner Beaver Street
Neighborhood: Bushwick
Year Built: 1885
Architectural Style: Rundbogenstil Romanesque Revival
Architect: Theobald Engelhardt
Other buildings by architect: Most of the brewery and factory buildings in Bushwick and Williamsburg, and half the houses. St. Mark’s Lutheran Church and School, St. John’s Lutheran Church , Arion Hall, Greenpoint Home for the Aged, and many, many, many more.
Landmarked: Yes, entire brewery complex landmarked in 2010.

The story: The story of Brooklyn would be vastly different without beer. Brooklyn once produced an ocean of it, mostly in Bushwick and Williamsburg. Before Prohibition, there were at least twenty-four breweries here. Ulmer’s Brewery was one of the most successful, and the brewery complex is one of the only intact examples of its kind left. William Ulmer, a German immigrant, brought to this new land the recipe, and while working for others here in Brooklyn, gained the experience to brew lager, for many, Germany’s greatest gift to the world. (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Former Eastern District Turn Verein, now Inglesia de Cristo Misionera, Inc.
Address: 1138 Gates Avenue, or 1051 Bushwick Avenue
Cross Streets: Corner of Gates and Bushwick Avenues
Neighborhood: Bushwick
Year Built: 1902
Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival
Architect: Theobald Engelhardt
Other Buildings by Architect: Arion Hall, Ulmer Brewery, Perika Chocolate Factory, parts of Eberhard Faber Factory complex, mansions on Bushwick Avenue, and many, many more.
Landmarked: No, should be though.

The story: In 1901, the Eastern District Turn Verein bought the old frame Tuttle Mansion, on the corner of Bushwick and Gates, in the heart of Bushwick. The Turn Verein was a popular athletic and social society founded by German immigrants, who had brought the Turn to the United States when they immigrated here in the mid-19th century. It was started in the 1820’s by Otto Jahn, a German physical education specialist, and in many ways, our entire American sports education and recreational heritage springs from this tradition. The Turns also emphasized education and Americanization, offering classes in English, and other subjects. By the end of the 19th century, Turn Verein clubs had spread across the country, but the largest were in New York, and the Eastern District Turn was most important. The mansion needed work, and wasn’t large enough for what the Turn needed, so they turned to one of their members who happened to be one of the Eastern District’s most prolific German-American architects, Theobald Engelhardt. (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Ridgewood Masonic Temple
Address: 1054 Bushwick Avenue
Cross Streets: Corner of Bushwick and Gates
Neighborhood: Bushwick
Year Built: 1920
Architectural Style: Simplified Beaux-Arts
Architect: Koch & Wagner
Other Buildings by Architects: Ralph Bunche house – Kew Gardens, Queens. East Brooklyn Savings Bank- Bedford and DeKalb Ave. Bed Stuy.
Landmarked: No, but part of a proposed Bushwick HD.

The story: This building once held one of Bushwick’s many social organizations. The Masons were and still are one of the largest fraternal organizations in Brooklyn, and their fine buildings are among some of our most beautiful and important buildings. This one was built in 1920, at a time when Bushwick was expanding from being a predominantly German-American neighborhood, into a neighborhood with a more diverse population, with different kinds of social societies.

The building, the only Beaux-Arts building on Bushwick Avenue, was designed for the 710 Masonic Lodge by the firm of Koch & Wagner. They are a familiar name in 20th century Brooklyn architecture, best known for banks and commercial buildings. Arthur R. Koch and Charles Wagner were both Brooklynites, and both graduated from Pratt Institute. They became partners in 1910, and remained in business together until 1951, the year before Arthur Koch died. That in itself is pretty amazing, most architectural partnerships don’t last that long. Over the years, both men also became president of the Brooklyn chapter of the American Institute of Architects. (AIA). (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Two family house
Address: 69 Cornelia Street
Cross Streets: Bushwick and Evergreen Avenues
Neighborhood: Bushwick
Year Built: after 1890, before 1907
Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: No

The story: The architectural legacy of Bushwick is just now being mapped. For too long, the consensus was that this area had its day in the sun, back in the second half of the 19th century, but there was nothing left here, after the economic devastation caused by riots, abandonment and poverty. That’s so not true. There is so much here to save and protect, as well as re-use and revitalize. Take this building, for instance. (more…)