Wallabout

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Industrial buildings
Address: 44-60 Ryerson St.
Cross Streets: Park and Flushing Avenues
Neighborhood: Wallabout
Year Built: 1907-1912
Architectural Style: Reinforced concrete factory
Architect: Albert Kahn
Other buildings by architect: Most of his career in Detroit area– Ford and Packard Motor Plants, much of U. of Mich. at Ann Arbor, Detroit area mansions, office buildings and manufacturing plants.
Landmarked: No, not yet.

The story: The Mergenthaler Linotype Company was one of the largest and most important manufacturers in Brooklyn’s history. Founded in 1886, by Ottmar Mergenthaler, linotype machines were invented to set type. Instead of a typesetter laying down individual letters to make a line of type, the machine created bars with groups of letters, called slugs, which could then be combined to create a page of type. This enabled a typesetter to set a page must faster and more accurately than before, making it perfect for newspapers and magazines. By the 20th century, almost all of the newspapers and magazines, as well as many other books and publications, were set on Linotype machines. Mergenthaler made those machines. (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Private House
Address: 71 Vanderbilt Avenue
Cross Streets: Myrtle and Flushing Avenues
Neighborhood: Wallabout
Year Built: 1849
Architectural Style: vernacular Greek Revival, with Italianate details
Architect: (Builder) Richard Pease
Landmarked: Yes, new Wallabout Historic District (2011)

The story: By the 1840’s, the Wallabout area was beginning to boom. Flushing Avenue was built to replace the old Wallabout Turnpike, opening up the neighborhood, and connecting it to downtown Brooklyn. Nearby farm land was sold off for development, and the federal government was buying more land along the shore for an expanding Navy Yard. The first Brooklyn city park, called City Park, now Commodore Barry Park, was laid out along the new Park Avenue near Navy and Nassau Streets in 1848. (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Brick row houses
Address: 127-131 Vanderbilt Avenue, between Myrtle and Park Avenues
Neighborhood: Wallabout
Year Built: 1850
Architectural Style: Italianate
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: Declared a NY State HD in 2011, on National Register of Historic Places. Proposed NYC Historic District.

The story: This block is the heart of the Wallabout District. Between 1830 and until the Civil War, the Wallabout area saw a building boom that made this one of the fastest growing areas in the town of Brooklyn. This was due to several factors, the main being the presence of the Navy Yard, only blocks away, and the concentration of industry along the river. Wallabout was also close to ferry service to Manhattan, enabling someone to work there and commute with relative ease. The area became a comfortable middle class neighborhood, with some of the neighbors doing quite well, as can be seen in houses like these. The area was well situated into the 20th century, with the Myrtle Avenue El train running passengers into downtown Brooklyn. When the El made its last run in 1969, the Wallabout neighborhood became more isolated, hastening the abandonment of the industrial sections, but probably helping to preserve the residential parts of the neighborhood.

There are several styles of Italianate houses on Vanderbilt Avenue alone, plus the other blocks in the proposed historic district. Some are wood frame houses, remarkable for their longevity, and these slightly later brick houses. Both 127 and 131 are in excellent condition, and were probably built at the same time and by the same builder and designer as their neighbor to the right, in 133. That house shares the same details, but is taller, the height seeming to come from higher ceilings on all floors. These two homes are a generous and comfortable 25 feet wide, with floor to almost ceiling arched windows, at the parlor level nicely framed by the front porches. The arched cornices, which are also in excellent shape, mirror the detail on the porches. The hooded window frames are classic Italianate features, as well. I especially like the contrasting colors on both houses; each color scheme works well, and coordinates with the other house.
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Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Former Rookwood Chocolate Factory
Address: 39 Waverly Avenue between Park and Flushing Avenues
Neighborhood: Wallabout
Year Built: 1910
Architectural Style: Factory Renaissance Revival with Gothic influences
Architect: Parfitt Brothers, with Ernest Flagg
Other buildings by architect:Parfitts: In Wallabout tenement buildings on Vanderbilt Ave, Bklyn Hts Montague, Grosvenor and Berkeley apt houses on Montague St. Park Slope St. Augustine’s Church on 6th Ave. Ernest Flagg: in Bay RIdge – Flagg Court, on Ridge Blvd.
Landmarked: Not yet, part of the proposed Wallabout Historic District.

The story: A previous BOTD featured the Von Glahn Warehouses on Washington Ave. In 1904, the Rookwood Chocolate Company leased the large warehouse, and smaller buildings also on Washington, for factory space. Rookwood Chocolate was one of the largest chocolate and cocoa processing companies in America, at the turn of the 20th century. They soon outgrew the Von Glahn buildings, and in 1910, commissioned Parfitt Brothers to design a large new factory behind the buildings on Washington, facing Waverly Place, between Park and Flushing Avenues. They also retained prominent architect Ernest Flagg to design the showroom space on the first floor, as well as the first floor windows. The Parfitt’s designed a handsome six story factory in red brick and limestone trim, with reinforced concrete floors. One could easily mistake the building for a school, not a factory. The Parfitts and Flagg took great care in the design; the banks of windows seem to extend the height of the building underneath large lintels with decorative keystones. The decorative red and yellow brick patterning near the roof and the limestone quoins and the windows all contribute to giving the factory a vague Gothic look, with a limestone Renaissance Revival base, much nicer than the majority of factory buildings of the time. A series of large bronze R’s in the façade advertise the Rookwood name, but also mask iron rods used for structural reinforcement. At the time of the factory’s opening, the Brooklyn Eagle said that the factory was the largest in New York State, and also one of the largest factories dedicated to the production of chocolate. Rookwood was very successful, and would eventually take up eight buildings in its complex on Waverly and Washington Avenues. In 1913, they employed 163 people, including six children on the factory floor. By the 1950′s, they were second only to Hershey’s in size, and had branch manufacturing sites across the country. But in the late 50′s, they began to fail, and the company closed in 1957. The buildings were sold to the Sweets Corporation of America, makers of Tootsie Rolls, who ran the factory with 700 workers until they closed in 1967. Today, this building is housing.
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Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Row houses
Address: 80-86 Vanderbilt Avenue, between Myrtle and Park
Neighborhood: Wallabout
Year Built: 1878
Architectural Style: Neo-Grec
Architect: Ebenezer L. Roberts
Other buildings by architect: Chapel of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Washington Avenue Baptist Church, Charles Pratt House at 232 Clinton Avenue.
Landmarked: Not yet. In proposed Wallabout HD. On state and national Historic Register.

The story: You can’t talk about the history or architecture of Clinton Hill, or Wallabout, without mentioning the Pratt family. Patriarch Charles Pratt was Brooklyn’s wealthiest man, a partner in Standard Oil with the J.D. Rockefeller, and a local philanthropist, and employer. Pratt Institute is his greatest legacy, as are the fine houses he had built for his sons, all on Clinton Avenue, and the Astral Apartments he had built for his workers in Greenpoint. Charles Pratt and his son Charles also built speculative housing, beginning in the last quarter of the 19th century; working class housing in the form of small apartment buildings and small rowhouse groups. This group is the first group to be commissioned. The Pratt’s had their favorite architects, including the great William Tubby, Lamb & Rich, and Ebenezer Roberts. Roberts had designed Charles Pratt senior’s own house, a large Italianate brownstone villa on Clinton Avenue, which is now part of St. Joseph’s College. He also designed the oldest part of Emmanuel Baptist Church, which Pratt funded, and the former house of worship for the family, Washington Avenue Baptist Church, now known as Brown Memorial Baptist. These small, fifteen foot wide, now, and perhaps originally, 2 family houses are styled in a very austere version of Neo-Grec, with very little ornament, except for the dagged angular brackets around the door frames, and some nice original ironwork. Today, the houses are in the heart of the proposed historic district, and provide a link in the line of succession in housing styles, from the early wood frame houses, to the later brick houses, these houses, followed by later brownstones, and then flats buildings.
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Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Originally Von Glahn Warehouse, then Rockwood & Co. Chocolate Factory, now Chocolate Factory Apartments
Address: 275 Park Avenue, corner of Washington Avenue.
Neighborhood: Wallabout
Year Built: 1890
Architectural Style: Romanesque Revival
Architect: John G. Glover
Other buildings by architect: 60-68 Washington Ave. (further down the same block)
Landmarked: No, but part of proposed Wallabout Historic District. Also on the State and National Register of Historic Places.

The story: The Brooklyn waterfront has long been a natural draw for food businesses and commodities. From the coffee warehouses below Brooklyn Heights, and in Red Hook, to the sugar factories of Williamsburg, we’ve long been about food. The Wallabout area has long been in the business of making and packaging that food, as well as storing it. The Von Glahn Brothers were one of several large wholesale grocery supply businesses in Brooklyn which developed at the end of the 19th century, and on into the beginning of the 20th. Others included the Grand Union Company in DUMBO, and Austin Nichols in Williamsburg. The Wallabout area was perfect for these kinds of businesses, large buildings could be built, a steady workforce was nearby, and the factories could get in raw produce from the nearby Wallabout Market, as well as close proximity to Brooklyn’s harbors and bridges. Companies like Von Glahn Brothers manufactured canned goods and other processed foods, re- packaged foods and groceries for retail, and shipped them across the country. John and Henry Von Glahn already had several buildings further down Washington Avenue, also by Glover, near Flushing, for their business, and commissioned this building in 1890 to be the showpiece of their empire. It’s a handsome 5 story brick building with a chamfered corner, the better to show off the Von Glahn name in terra-cotta, which also appears on the side. Another terra-cotta plaque on the end of the building reads Quimby, which may have been one of their products, or perhaps the name of another tenant. By using brick in creative patterns, Glover really made this industrial warehouse into quite an attractive building, and a fine example of late 19th century commercial architecture. In 1907, the building became part of the Rockwood & Co. Chocolate Company, an annexation to their factories behind this building, on Waverly and Park. The last candy was produced in these factories in 1967, and today, the buildings are enjoying a new life as housing.

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Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Private House
Address: 73 Vanderbilt Avenue, between Myrtle and Park Avenues
Neighborhood: Wallabout
Year Built: early 1830′s
Architectural Style: Federal, with Greek Revival details
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: Not yet, but hopefully soon, as part of the Wallabout Historic District.

The story: The Wallabout neighborhood has the largest concentration of pre-Civil War frame houses in the entire city. I’d read that often, in regards to the neighborhood, but didn’t really understand what that really meant until a recent tour with architectural historian Andrew Dolkart. Because some of these small frame homes have been badly maintained, and the proximity of the BQE, and distance from any subway renders the neighborhood as relatively unworthy to the uninitiated, the impressiveness of this small neighborhood is often overlooked. It’s really a small town over here, with few touches of even the latter part of the 19th century. On Vanderbilt alone, the variety of styles and number of early frame houses is just amazing, and quite interesting. The Perris Map of 1855 shows a highly built up neighborhood in Wallabout, made up predominantly of these kinds of modest homes, along with some more substantial brick homes. The wealthier people were steered further up the Hill, especially on Clinton, where the air and the view was better. Down here, in the flatlands, the population was made up of people who worked for the expanding Navy Yard, in local industries, or in even in Manhattan, which was not such a long commute, being right by the harbor. Number 73 is one of the oldest houses on the block. It has been dated to the early 1830′s, as are several others. The same time many of the Federal style frame houses of northern Brooklyn Heights were going up, so were these. For Brooklyn, this is old stuff. This house is a classic Federal style clapboard house, with generous proportions, one of the larger houses of this style. It is classified style-wise, as a transitional house, as it has an original Federal style doorway, with side lights, but Greek Revival style window frames, attic windows and molding, perhaps a stylistic choice to modernize and keep up with current styles. It’s a fine house on a block that will someday be the heart of the Wallabout Historic District.

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