38-42 Washington Avenue, SSPellen 2

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Mixed use retail and residential buildings
Address: 38-44 Washington Avenue, aka 200 Flushing Avenue
Cross Streets: Flushing and Park Avenues
Neighborhood: Wallabout
Year Built: 1907
Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival with Romanesque and classical details
Architect: Benjamin Finkensieper
Other Buildings by Architect: Knox Hat Factory building in Crown Heights, and many other factories, warehouses, churches and tenement buildings throughout Brooklyn.
Landmarked: No, but part of a proposed LPC Wallabout Industrial Historic District, and a National Register nomination for the same.

The story: At the turn of the 20th century, the factories and warehouses of Wallabout and the activities within the Brooklyn Navy Yard were at an all-time high. Only the World War II years would surpass it. This group of buildings was built for Henry Waldeck, a very successful builder and developer who did a lot of work in both industrial and residential areas. A large fire on this, and surrounding blocks in 1907 damaged or destroyed the wood framed buildings that were on this site, giving Waldeck, who had owned many of them already, the perfect excuse to rebuild, and build better.

He employed architect Benjamin Finkensieper for the design. Finkensieper (also spelled Finkenseiper in about half the literature) was one of the more prominent late 19th, early 20th century architects in Brooklyn specializing mostly in industrial buildings. He is the architect of record in several large factories, including the Knox Hat factory building on St. Marks Avenue in Crown Heights. He designed many warehouses and factory buildings throughout Brooklyn, with most of them in the Wallabout and Bushwick area.

He also designed tenement buildings and churches, including the Bushwick Avenue Baptist Church, built in 1890, and a group of tenement buildings on Bushwick Avenue built in 1894. He often designed extensions and alterations to existing industrial buildings, and his work can be found in factory buildings in Wallabout, Dumbo, Bushwick, Williamsburg, and elsewhere. He worked from his office on Broadway, in Williamsburg, from around 1886 until 1915.

These are really nice buildings. Three of them are two story buildings with a storefront below and an apartment above. The corner building has retail below and two stories of apartments above. Unlike the red brick, or concrete industrial buildings nearby, these are made of a distinctive light brick with terra cotta trim, cast iron storefront piers and pressed metal cornices. The windows on the corner building have what is called “Gibbs surrounds,” the name for the blocks of stone surrounding the window frames (or doors or niches) with a prominent keystone. The feature is named for 18th century English architect James Gibbs.

Tenants in the retail portions of the buildings were all involved in the food business, which makes sense, as the Wallabout Market was practically across the street. They were butchers, eggs, butter and dairymen, fruit dealers and other produce dealers. In later years, after World War II and Wallabout Market were gone, the corner building became what most people would call a dive bar.

All that changed in 2010, when a company paid $2 million for all four buildings. They were gutted and are now being renovated for the new businesses of hip Wallabout. Today, Mast Brothers Chocolate and the Brooklyn Roasting Company (coffee) are among the tenants of the buildings, which are still in the process of being renovated.

(Photograph:S.Spellen)

GMAP

1980s tax photo: Municipal Archives
1980s tax photo: Municipal Archives
Photo: S.Spellen
Photo: S.Spellen
Photo: S.Spellen
Photo: S.Spellen

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