Walkabout: Miss Dillon’s Gas Company, Part Three

Read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 4 of this story.

In March of 1926, Mary Estelle Dillon became the new President of the Brooklyn Borough Gas Company. She was the first woman in the world to head a utility company. From her office in Coney Island, she was running a five million dollar company with five hundred employees and a customer base of 170,000 residents of Coney Island, Gravesend, Sheepshead Bay and surrounding neighborhoods. Although the gas company had started back in the days of gas lights and coal stoves, Brooklyn Borough Gas had grown into a modern 20th century utility company, supplying gas to its customers for appliances and home heating.

Miss Dillon knew the gas business from top to bottom, and had really been running the day to day operations of the utility for years. She knew that gas may seem to be a man’s business, but it was used by women. Gas powered stoves and other appliances were the moneymakers for the company. Why not bring women into the gas company itself, by designing a headquarters and showroom where women could come in, examine and buy the latest gas-powered appliances, and learn new recipes and techniques in how to use them? She didn’t have to pitch this to anyone higher except the board of directors. They thought it was a great idea, and plans for a brand new headquarters for Brooklyn Borough Gas were put into motion in 1929, and the facility was completed in 1931.

The new facility was built near the old, on Neptune Avenue at Shell Road. The architects and engineers of the project were the Manhattan firm of Block & Hesse. They were quite busy in the 1920s and ‘30s, designing all kinds of commercial, residential and institutional projects throughout the city. The new facility had a business office where customers could pay bills, or speak to representatives. It had a laboratory for testing appliances, and a very spacious showroom where the newest appliances could be viewed and purchased. The “laboratory” was a huge test kitchen, where classes and demonstrations were given for not only stoves, but washers, dryers, fireplaces, heating stoves and other gas-fueled appliances. The company’s executive and business offices were here too.

In addition, the facility also had a garage for the utility and repair trucks, railroad and motorcar loading platforms, for shipping and receiving, equipment storage rooms, repair shops, tool and machine shops. Looming behind the facility were the gas storage tanks, and around that, the gas refinery itself. The new building was state of the art, and was heated and cooled by a gas boiler furnace.

The new buildings were in a campus-like setting, and had it not been for the giant gas tanks, could be mistaken for a school. The buildings are nestled together, one leading to the next. The grounds were beautifully landscaped, with trees, shrubs, flowers beds and lawn. The entire complex, especially the main building housing the offices and showroom was designed in a Jacobean, Old English style, with large windows and a large inviting entryway.

The buildings were very much in the mode of the suburban homes being built in Westchester and Long Island, but there was also a very subtle Art Deco-like practicality to the mix, especially in the garages and workshops. There were lovely vine covered wrought iron gateways into the complex, with herringbone brick sidewalks. There were plants everywhere, including inside the offices and showroom. The showroom was designed to appeal to a woman’s interior decorating sense, and also invoked a sense of home and comfort. The entire campus was a wonderful combination of pleasing form and function. These were really good industrial buildings. Fortunately, a large number of photographs exist to show it off, thanks to the Museum of the City of New York.

The finished complex was so good; it was one of the winners of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s Architectural Excellence Awards for 1931. It was in the same company as the new Telephone Building in Downtown Brooklyn, the Cranlyn Apartments in Brooklyn Heights, and the St. Peter Claver School in Bedford Stuyvesant, all great Art Deco buildings.

Although the Great Depression had a great impact on Brooklyn and the entire country, the Brooklyn Borough Gas Company stayed strong. Its stock was strong, and its new complex in Coney Island was a big hit with consumers. The Brooklyn papers had story after story about the programs that took place at the new facility. There were regular cooking classes that taught homemakers how to prepare good food for less money. They learned how to make nutritious meals with lesser cuts of meat and with new recipes to stretch vegetables and grains. They were also introduced to new appliances which could be purchased from them, or from their trade partners, local appliance and department stores.

This not only helped people, it strengthened brand loyalty. Kings County Gas Company, which serviced the South Brooklyn/Bay Ridge/Dyker Heights area, was just about the only other small company left besides Brooklyn Borough Gas. Most of Brooklyn was serviced by Brooklyn Union Gas. They too had test kitchens and showrooms and trade partners like Abraham & Straus. But Brooklyn Union Gas was huge. Brooklyn Borough Gas was small and local. Coney Islanders were quite happy in their corner of town with their local utility and its beautiful suburban setting. The company also established other branch offices and payment centers, but this was their pride and joy.

Mary Dillon saw her company through the Great Depression, on into the World War II era. Whereas people had no money before, now they saw natural resources all going to the war effort. There were gas shortages as the oil used to refine gas was diverted to the military, or was held up by shipping problems, some of them due to dangers in the shipping lanes.

On Feb. 17th, 1943, the entire city was down to two days’ worth of oil to generate gas for millions of customers. All of the oil companies were also out of home heating oil. It was exceptionally cold that winter, and Miss Dillon and the other gas companies implored their customers to not use their stoves to heat their apartments and homes. Fortunately, a new shipment of oil came through at the last minute, and the gas stayed on, and fuel oil companies were able to go out and fill customer’s tanks. It would not be the only gas and oil shortage the city would face over the course of the war.

BBG also took part in the war effort. Mary Dillon organized the Brooklyn Defense Recreation Committee. She called on the presidents and chairmen of many of Brooklyn’s largest stores and companies to join her on the board, or contribute to the cause. The Committee ran two canteens for soldiers and sailors, one down by the Navy Yard. The Committee also had fund drives, collected scrap metal and took part in civil defense drills and other activities. When a new board was elected, Mary Dillon was asked to become its honorary chairwoman.

By the time the war ended, Mary Dillon had put in over forty years with Brooklyn Borough Gas. She had long since passed the days when men didn’t think she could run her company. She had weathered the Great Depression and World War II. The Cold War was coming. The company had withstood scandals about service and pricing, rate increases, worker deaths from accidents, lawsuits, war, and shortages.

In 1942, Mary had been appointed to the Board of Education. She was elected chairman two years later, in 1944. In 1945, she was unanimously re-elected as the President of the Board of Education. A year later, she announced that she was retiring from the Gas Company in order to devote her attentions to the Board Of Education on a full-time basis. Her days at the Brooklyn Borough Gas Company were coming to an end. She had spent her entire career at the company, from the age of 17 in 1903 until 1946. She had risen from junior office clerk and gofer, to the president of the company and a member of the board of directors. It was an astonishing forty-three years. GMAP

Next: the conclusion of our story of Mary Dillon and the Brooklyn Borough Gas Company.
(Photograph:Museum of the City of New York, 1933)

Miss Dillon’s Gas Company, Part One
Miss Dillon’s Gas Company, Part Two