Building of the Day: 19 Duryea Place
Brooklyn, one building at a time. Name: Former Brooklyn Union Gas Co., Loehmann’s Dept. Store, now FEGS Simon Community Residence. Address: 19 Duryea Place Cross Streets: Flatbush Avenue and East 22nd Street Neighborhood: Flatbush Year Built: 1930-1931 Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival Architect: Unknown Landmarked: No The story: Brooklyn Union Gas Company was the grandchild of…

Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Former Brooklyn Union Gas Co., Loehmann’s Dept. Store, now FEGS Simon Community Residence.
Address: 19 Duryea Place
Cross Streets: Flatbush Avenue and East 22nd Street
Neighborhood: Flatbush
Year Built: 1930-1931
Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: No
The story: Brooklyn Union Gas Company was the grandchild of the Brooklyn Gas Light Company, founded in 1824, when a group of far thinking entrepreneurs thought it would be a great idea to light Brooklyn’s streets with methane gas. Unfortunately, the town of Brooklyn didn’t think so, and the company died when they couldn’t get a contract. However, gas was the fuel of the future, and by the 1840s, Brooklyn Gas Light was back, this time they got the contract, and instead of natural methane, began producing the gas through an elaborate coal burning manufacturing process. Other neighborhood gas companies were founded, and by the 1890s, there were at least fifteen gas companies competing for Brooklyn’s business, some with parallel gas lines down the same streets. In 1895, Brooklyn Union Gas was founded by the merger of seven of those companies, and by 1926, had consolidated all of the small companies in Brooklyn, Queens, and parts of Long Island into one large entity.
With the widespread use of electricity killing the use of gas for lighting, Brooklyn Union Gas began concentrating on the retail home gas market, and began building neighborhood centers where customers could not only pay their bills, but shop for new appliances like stoves, refrigerators, and washing machines, and learn how to use them. The neighborhood BUG centers were large enough to have showrooms, auditoriums and show kitchens, where demonstrators could prepare food, have fashion shows, lectures and demonstrations, all aimed towards housewives and mothers, who, after all, would be making the domestic purchasing decisions in the house.
This center, on quiet Duryea Place, just around the corner from the Loew’s Kings Theater in busy Flatbush, was begun in 1930, and opened for business on May 11th, 1931. Brooklyn Borough President Henry Hesterburgh was on hand with BUG president James H. Jourdan and his vice president, for the grand opening. Hesterburgh praised the beauty of the building, and welcomed it to Flatbush, the “Garden Spot of Brooklyn.” The ribbon cutting ceremony was followed by a speech by the head of the new center, as well as the director of the Home Service Division, Miss Ruth Soule, who was in charge of all of the programming there. She was followed by a demonstration of how to prepare a sumptuous meal of planked fish. Plans for opening week included a fashion show with the latest in Paris fashions, organized by the women’s fashion departments at Abraham & Straus.
The Brooklyn Union Gas center operated until the early 1960s. For almost thirty years, they were host to many of their own activities, as well as host to other groups, such as the Girl Scouts, church and synagogue groups, schools, etc. For example, in 1938, the National Council of Jewish Women sponsored a course on “Party Catering for the Home,” at BUG. It sold out. They also sponsored art shows and gallery exhibitions, featuring local and well-known artists.
By the 1960s, BUG began consolidation its enterprises. Department and appliance stores now sold more stoves and other appliances than they did, and they began to get out of the retail business. Neighborhoods also began to change. Flatbush was still a busy shopping corridor, so when BUG wanted to get rid of the building, it was soon snapped up by another famous Brooklyn institution – Loehmann’s.
Loehmann’s was started by the legendary Frieda Loehmann back in 1921. She visited the showrooms and studios of Manhattan’s best fashion designers, and bought back to her store on Sterling Place and Bedford Avenue in Crown Heights, the best in ladies’ fashion, to be sold at cut-rate prices. Her story can be found in this Walkabout. Her son, Charles, wanted to expand Loehmann’s beyond Crown Heights, but that was not Frieda’s dream. He opened another store in the Bronx, under the Charles C. Loehmann Company, which soon became as famous as the original, but he was not able to go any farther until Frieda died, in 1962. One of his branch stores was established here, and it was a neighborhood shopping fixture from 1963 until 1996, surviving the ups and downs and changes of the Flatbush business district.
Charles C. Loehmann’s was purchased by a company that merged with May Dept. Stores, which sold to yet another company, and it went public in 1996. At that time, they closed many of the old May’s holdings, including this store. It is now a branch of FEGS (Federation Employment and Guidance Service), part of the UJA Federation of New York. Among their other works, they assist people in psychiatric rehabilitation services and have employment and career services. This is also the FEGS Simon Residence. GMAP
(Photo:Googlemaps)





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