Historic Gowanus Buildings Could Become Landmarks As Rezone Looms

GOWANUS, BROOKLYN — Five of Gowanus' historic buildings are on their way to becoming city landmarks, a development local activists say will help ensure the neighborhood's history isn't lost in its upcoming rezoning.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission officially calendared the Gowanus Flushing Tunnel Pumping Station and Gate House, Somers Brothers Tinware Factory, the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company Central Power Station Engine House, the Montauk Paint Manufacturing Company Building and the ASPCA Rogers Memorial Building for consideration as individual landmarks on Tuesday.

The five buildings were chosen after the LPC worked with the Department of City Planning, which is leading a rezoning plan for Gowanus, to determine where the neighborhood needed preserving.

It also comes after a strong push from local advocates, like the Gowanus Landmarking Coalition, who have made the case for preserving certain sites before the rezoning plan, or other changes, lead to demolition of significant properties. Advocates said Tuesday that the calendaring is a good first step, but that there is still a ways to go.

“We view this as a great first step by the Landmarks Preservation Commission,” Brad Vogel, one of the co-founders of the Coalition, said Tuesday. “While westrongly encourage the Commission to continue reviewing additional potential landmarks in Gowanus — and along Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue, in Carroll Gardens, and in Red Hook — it is heartening to see even a handful of true landmarks calendared before the proposed rezoning arrives.”

The Coalition said this marks the first time there has been a calendaring of individual landmarks before a city-intitiated rezoning was put into place. They added that the LPC had not closed the door on considering other properties on a list created by the coalition.

Among those are several buildings the coalition says is already under threat, such as the S.W. Bowne Grain Storehouse that developers have already started to tear down or the Gowanus Station building, which was threatened for demolition with the Gowanus Canal clean-up plan.

Members of the coalition also pointed out the Roulston complex on 9th Street, the R.G. Dun building at Butler and NEvins streets, the brewery and icehouse complex at 4th and Bond avenues and various streetscapes.

Some said that, for extra protection, Gowanus sites should not only be named city landmarks, but state and national landmarks as well.

“We want to be able to tell the story of Gowanus, and these buildings form a helpful core we can build from as we interpret its layers of history,” said Kim Maier of the Old Stone House.

Here's a look at the five buildings that are up for consideration:

Gowanus Flushing Tunnel Pumping Station and Gate House

This building, found at 196 Butler Street, was built between 1910 and 1911. It was part of a major infrastructure project intended to clean the polluted waters of the Gowanus Canal.

When it opened, it represented one of the most ambitious efforts to clean a polluted American waterway, the LPC said.

The larger of the two buildings, the Pumping Station, housed the tunnel’s pumping and electric motor equipment and the Gate House contained the tunnel’s southern gate valve.

Somers Brothers Tinware Factory

This 3rd Street building, which spans several addresses on Third Avenue and 3rd Street, was built in 1884 and in 1891. It was constructed by the Somers Brothers, a major manufacturer of tinware boxes.

The Somers Brothers continued to work there until 1901, when the building was taken over by the American Can Company.

Since the 1970s, the former Somers Brothers factory has housed artists’ studios. More than 300 artists, craftspeople, publishers, and filmmakers occupy the building today, and it serves as a venue for the annual Rooftop Films series, the LPC said.

Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company Central Power Station Engine House

This building was constructed by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company between 1901 and 1902. The Romanesque-Classical Revival style structure is found at 153 2nd St.

"The former Brooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT) Central Power Station Engine House is a monumental link to the Gowanus Canal’s industrial past and a significant structure in the development of mass transit in New York City," the LPC said.

The transit company, which gained a near-monopoly over Brooklyn’s railroad and streetcar lines, consolidated generating operations for Brooklyn’s various mass-transit lines at this site.

Montauk Paint Manufacturing Company Building

This 2nd Avenue building as designed by G. George Heghlman and was one of two factories built as an investment for William Kelly, president of the Brooklyn Alcatraz Asphault Company. It was built in 1908 and is an American Round Arch style.

The building’s first tenant was the Montauk Paint Manufacturing Company, which by 1910 was joined by the Dessau Cork Company and Diamond Decorative Leaf Company.

The painting company was an example of the borough's position as one of the foremost paint manufacturing centers in the country at the time.

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) Rogers Memorial Building

This building, opened first in 1913, was hailed as the "largest, most complete animal shelter in the world." It was largely funded by members of the Bowdoin and Schermerhorn families and constructed as the Brooklyn dog and cat shelter of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and is the finest surviving ASPCA building in New York City.

The 233 Butler Street building was first built in 1913 and expanded in 1922. It was designed byRenwick, Aspinwall & Tucker and built in the Neo-Romanesque style.