Building of the Day: 1146 Fulton Street

The BOTD is a no-frills look at interesting structures of all types and from all neighborhoods. There will be old, new, important, forgotten, public, private, good and bad. Whatever strikes our fancy. We hope you enjoy.

Address: 1146 Fulton Street, between Franklin and Bedford
Name: Key Food, formerly Post Office Station B
Neighborhood: Bedford Stuyvesant
Year Built: 1922?
Architectural Style: Commerical w/ Classical ornamentation
Architects: Unknown
Landmarked: No

Passing this way recently I happened to notice that this Key Food was once a post office. Post Office Station B. How interesting! Research on US Post Office official nomenclature says that a postal station is a postal facility that is not the main post office, but that is within the corporate limits of the community.

Station B was built to handle the overflow from the Brevoort Station on Atlantic Avenue, as the Bedford area had grown beyond expectation. This is not the original Station B, however. In 1887, a beautiful new Station B opened at 1266 Fulton, between Nostrand and Bedford. That building is now gone.

This one is obviously later, and the 1922 date I cite is from Prop Shark, but it is really more accurate for the buildings next door. Property Shark has this building and the entire complex next door all the way to Franklin and around the corner as one piece of property, although they obviously are not.

I was not able to find out when the post office gave the building up. There was a lot of downsizing in the late 1950’s, so it may have been then? I do know this has been a grocery store since I moved to the area in the early 1980’s. Another mystery to be solved. If you know more, please post here.

[Photos by Suzanne Spellen]