Author: Control@ltvsquad.com

History
In 1973, the entire block of North 4th street between Bedford and Berry was the scene of protests and destruction dealt by the scandalous hands of then NYC Mayor Lindsay. Lindsay forcefully evicted families from their homes to make way for a huge expansion of the S & S corrugated box company factory.

NYC was once a very middle class manufacturing city. Over 1 million people worked here in jobs building everything from staples to light switches. S & S corrugated made machines for constructing corrugated boxes. They employed 600 people in a factory just across the street (on 4th btw Berry & Wythe) – and in 1973, NYC was losing thousands of such jobs per year. When S & S went to City Hall and told the mayor they needed to expand their factory in order to stay in Brooklyn, they devised a plot to simply kick out everyone living on the block just east of their present factory in order to build a huge new wing. The mayor, likely paid off to do so, went right along with this plan.

The mayor and S & S likely did not realize that the 94 families whose homes were slated to be demolished would not go quietly. They organized. When their voices were not heard, they blocked traffic on the BQE during rush hour (this became a favorite tactic of local political activists). Such protests were just plain unheard of at the time.

They blocked traffic on the BQE during rush hour (this became a favorite tactic of local political activists).

Eventually the Mayor ‘compromised’ by agreeing to build replacement homes just across N. 3rd street. These homes still exist today. It begs the question though – if that property was available, why the hell didn’t S & S just build their factory there?

Some protested right up until the very end: “Seven cops couldn’t push me off the stoop of one house, even with the glass flying all over” Frank Kulikowski, a hulking man who is the neighborhood’s friendly grouch, said last week”.

S & S did indeed expand their operation and for several years survived. At some point in the 1980s or 90s though, S & S closed down, leaving their brand new factory building empty and obsolete. For a short while it was rented out by a company that maintained arcade games. In the end, throwing all of those families out of their homes proved to be a complete waste of time, money and strife.

Today, (June 2013) the entire neighborhood is better known for trendy loft apartments and stores than manufacturing. This building remains exactly as it was when we explored it in 2007: a large empty completely abandoned shell of a building. It is rather amazing that it has been allowed to sit in this condition for so long. The exterior walls were used as a legal graffiti canvas in the early 2000s. Whatever becomes of it, it most certainly will never be a factory again.

Adventure
There’s something inherently funny about walking up the front stairs of a building and looking out onto the street below (because there are no walls up here anymore) – especially when that street is full of people going about their lame ass boring lives. There was but a sheet of plywood between us and them, but when you think about it, it may as well have been the great wall of china. This is the barrier between those who explore and those who will never understand the pleasures of crossing lines, physically and mentally.

Beyond the thrill of the location, this building offers absolutely nothing.

Original writeup, July 8, 2007 under the title ‘barging in on bedford’. History added June 11, 2013

Sources:
NY Times: A Battle leads to a New Northside: August 20, 1974
People Power: Grass Roots Politics and Race Relations By Judith N. DeSena

History
There’s not a whole lot about these buildings online. The whole block consisted of one story tall, flat brick buildings with no signs on the front. They were simply too small to be used in any major manufacturing. I did get a hit on one of the addresses: 205 N9th street. Apparently a business located here was shut down by the feds during the 1920s prohibition for selling kits to create your own alcohol.
If you have more information about the history of the any of these buildings that were on N9th street, by all means comment below.

Adventure
So I’m driving down this street when we realize all of the the buildings on it are about to be boarded up… which is typical really. I drove by here last weekend and there were no boards. Hell,  there was a roll down gate a little ways up that we tried to slide open only to find another gate behind it… and here we are a week later with sure signs of impending demo/redevelopment.

So we park and start shooting the block. A quick look at one of the doors shows it’s as open as your mom on prom night, and the hallway and interior doors look inviting, so in we go…

But what a god damned tease that was, for there is nothing in here worth the time to even look at, except maybe a stinky smell and piles of trashbags.

Turns out the place must have been used by some armoured car company at some point, as there was a big empty vault and signs to suggestion that cash from banks and betting operations came in here…

Within a week, this entire row of buildings was bulldozed.

History
Colonna & Company was a supplier of Marble, located in Long Island City just north of the ‘Big Allis’ power plant on Vernon Blvd.
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History
The only reference to this building that I could find online is via a map located on the Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal railroad site. it was located at the southwest corner of N4th street and Wythe. The rear of the building had loading docks which opened to a railroad siding, thus it’s somewhat likely that the building was also used for transloading goods from boxcars to trucks. If you happen to know more about this building, by all means please comment below.

Adventure
Ok so I think your FAT MOM lived here, cuz I yelled “Hey Kool Aid!” and she came busting through the wall.

Enough of my attempts at humor.

It’s kinda hard to not go into a place when there’s a huge fucking hole in the wall.

It’s kinda hard to not go into a place when there’s a huge fucking hole in the wall. As a matter of fact just before we walked into this one some set of hipster assholes paraded right on in and then disappeared. They probably realized we were already in there and thus afraid of actual native NYers.

Hey that’s ok, I don’t give a god damn. I’m not a photo snob who only explorers abandoned mental hospitals and well aged decaying buildings. I’ll explore anything… and I’ll photography the hell out of it. In a year or two none of this will be here, and I’ll have some of the only photographic evidence that this place existed at all.

For many years, the Abandoned Domino’s Sugar refinery on the Brooklyn waterfront was a playground for explorers and graffiti artists. As usual, we were in first.

In 1857 they started refining sugar on this property, and that practice continued until the early 2000’s. The Dominos refinery’s closure was not a happy occasion, a fact that seems to be overlooked by just about everyone reporting on the situation there today. In 1988, the company was bought by an overseas firm that in 1998 handed the union a raw deal – a contract that demanded a lot of give backs and a slap to the face of the working man everywhere. The union went on strike, but they got no backing from their national organization. Left out in the cold for more than 20 months, the union finally gave in and the company got to ram their raw deal down the worker’s throats. It wouldn’t even last that long though. With production so far down while the strike was on, the place never seemed to recatch what it once had… They closed up the factory and sold the property in 2004. A sick and sad end to a long storied history.

Today the Abandoned Domino’s Sugar refinery stands vacant and quiet. Security cameras line the facade and guards wander around… inside, the buildings are dark and quiet. The floors are sticky with sugar product. It’s just one of the dozens of abandoned industrial buildings located around NYC.

Such a large industrial site as this, located on prime real estate, will surely not last much longer. Plans to redevelop it are already made. How much longer it will stand, who knows… The only thing I do know is that preservationists wish to preserve the company sign that is on the side of one of the buildings here… and to that, I say maybe those preservationists should talk to some of the people that worked here and were eventually forced out and see what they have to say about that…

If I was one of them, I’d want to drive the wrecking ball through the sign myself.

Update: 2018.
This property has, of course, been redeveloped into residential housing.

The Eberhard Faber Pencil factory is breaking them all in terms of demo time. One month ago the boards went up around it, and here we are one month later, one building of the 3 almost completely demoed, the second building being smashed hard, and the third and largest, still intact, but actively having all electrical and plumbing scrapped.

What will be left if I bother to come back next month? Probably not even a pile of bricks.
For a complete history of this place, check out my first article about it.

Update 2018
Obviously this place is long gone. With their conversion to residential use, NYC has lost another set of abandoned industrial buildings.