Food has always played an important role in the history of Brooklyn. Not only has food manufacturing occupied Brooklyn factories and employed its citizens, but historic food establishments have become icons: some for their architecture, others for their atmosphere and still others for their delicacies.

In 1814, Robert Fulton, inventor of the world’s first successful steamboat, established a steam-powered ferry to traverse the East River between what is now Fulton Street in Brooklyn and Fulton Street in Manhattan. Fulton’s steam ferry sparked an era of rapid growth in Brooklyn. Within less than 50 years, the sleepy village transformed into the third-largest city in America.

Storefronts on Old Fulton Street, ca. 1975. The buildings date to the late 1830s, when they comprised small commercial district near the Fulton Ferry, including manufacturers, grocers, and taverns.

No. 4 Water Street, ca. 1975.

The Manhattan Bridge, viewed from the intersection of Washington and Front Streets, ca. 1978.

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View of the Brooklyn Bridge and downtown skyline from Main Street Park, ca. 1979.

View of newly built park deck at Fulton Ferry Landing, ca. 1975. Ferry service operated at this crossing as early as 1642, but the Fulton Ferry takes its name from Robert Fulton’s revolutionary steam ferry service, which made its debut in 1814. The construction of the East River bridges contributed to declining ferry ridership, and Fulton Ferry service ceased in 1924.

View of the Lower Manhattan skyline, past the Brooklyn Bridge, from the intersection of John and Pearl Streets; ca. 1975. The brick building at right is the former Arbuckle Brothers sugar refinery, once responsible for producing a sugar-based coating which protected roasted coffee beans from going stale prior to delivery. The Arbuckle refinery has since been razed, with the site now home to John Street Park, the easternmost section of the Brooklyn Bridge Park development. The park is a landscaped salt marsh with pedestrian crossings, including a small trace of the former Arbuckle empire: the refinery's iron and concrete footings have been left untouched, amid native tidal grasses.

Today, Fulton Mall is a bustling shopping district in Downtown Brooklyn. During the late-Victorian / early-Edwardian eras (think 1880-1910), it was the preeminent thoroughfare for fashionable shopping in Brooklyn. With monumental department stores like Abraham & Straus and impeccable restaurants like Gage & Tollner, shoppers and window shoppers alike teamed Fulton Street to see everything from the latest wedding trousseau to mourning veils, and penny candy to soft clam bellies in Duxbury stew. While most of these businesses no longer exist, many of their architectural remains can be found behind and above their modern facades.

Long Island Safe Deposit Company building, 1 Front Street.

1 Old Fulton Street, ca. 1958. The four-story corner building at the intersection of Water and Old Fulton Streets dates to the late 1830s, when it opened as the Franklin House hotel.

Corner of Fulton Street & Front Street, 1958 What a difference a few decades make! Built in 1869, this 1958 photograph of 1 Front Street from nearly a century later shows the aging of its unique cast iron facade. Described by the NY Times as an "eccentric Renaissance palazzo" this building's facade, once green with age now gleams white. Built by the Long Island Safety Deposit Company, it is the oldest surviving bank building in New York and in 1971 had a cameo in the Sophia Loren film "Mortadella."

Tobacco Inspection Warehouse and Brooklyn Bridge, May 22, 1936. The Tobacco Warehouse was best recognized in the later 20th century as a hollow, roofless building. Berenice Abbott captured it here in 1936 prior to its near abandonment. Built in the 1860s the large brick warehouse was originally five stories. It was used as a tobacco storage space and the customs inspection center for tobacco. In the 1890s, 90% of Brooklyn's tobacco trade occurred here. By the mid 20th century the tobacco warehouse was no longer and the building was occupied by a metal reclaiming company. By the 1970s the roof of the, then remaining two stories, was gone and left the building open to the elements. Despite some initial legal issues related to the adjacent Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Tobacco Warehouse underwent a massive and multi-million dollar renovation between 2013-2015. It has been transformed (with new roof added) into a theatre venue for the avant-garde theater group St. Ann's Warehouse. The renovations included constructing a brand new building just inside (like an inch from) the original walls.

The Manhattan Bridge opened to the public on the morning of December 31, 1909. It was the third suspension bridge built to span the East River, joining the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges. At the beginning of construction, its name was “Bridge No. 3” but that didn’t stick. In the end, the city opted for something simple, christening the bridge Manhattan

View of the Brooklyn Bridge from the Manhattan Bridge, November 11, 1936.

Ferries have made a bit of a comeback lately with the East River Ferry, Governor’s Island Ferry, and even a ferry to Ikea in Brooklyn. The first ferry route between Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, however, was established in the 1630s, just a few years after the settling of New York by the Dutch. While Cornelius Dircksen Hoagland may have been the first to run a ferry between the two boroughs, Robert Fulton and his brother-in-law William Cutting popularized it in more modern times.

Part of a fleet, Sludge Vessel Coney Island was built in the late 1930s during an era of wastewater treatment modernization aimed at keeping sewage out of the City’s rivers and harbor and improving public health. Back then, the vessels carried sludge out into the ocean, but since the 1990s they’ve sailed to facilities that turn it into biosolids, which can be composted, added to agricultural soils, or further processed for other beneficial uses. Decommissioned by NYC’s Environmental Protection Administration in 1972, the Coney Island was intentionally sunk off the coast of New Jersey, becoming a Scuba diving and fishing destination as part of the Shark River Reef!

Eagle Warehouse ca. 1907 Built on the site of an old Brooklyn Eagle warehouse, famed Brooklyn architect Frank Freedman was hired to design a new fireproof warehouse on the site. Freedman's design, which Christopher Gray of the New York Times would describe as "a medieval brick fortress,", earned local acclaim upon its completion in 1894 and received a landmark designation in 1977. It would shortly thereafter be converted into condominiums.

5-7 Front Street, ca. 1958. Known to be the oldest surviving office building in New York City, 5-7 Front Street was originally erected in 1827 for the Long Island Insurance Company. Made of granite, brick, and stone, the building is among the district's earliest examples of the Greek Revival style. Today the building houses a restaurant, Gran Electrica, on its ground-floor.

Empire Stores, 53-83 Water Street, 1980. Long underutilized, the Brooklyn waterfront received a facelift beginning in 2002 when then Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor George Pataki set aside 1.3 miles of waterfront to create a promenade and park. Construction began in 2008 and the park opened to the public in 2010.

Located in the Fulton Ferry Historic District in Brooklyn, the Fulton Ferry Fireboat House was built in 1926 on the former site of the old Fulton Ferry Terminal. Two years’ prior, Brooklyn’s Union Ferry Company had terminated service from this location due to the declining number of ferry commuters. This occurred in part because the early 1900s saw a rise in alternate means of available transportation including automobiles and newly constructed bridges spanning the East River between Brooklyn and Manhattan. The Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883, followed by the Williamsburg Bridge in 1903, and the Manhattan Bridge in 1912. On October 8, 1925, the Fulton Ferry Terminal was destroyed in a massive two alarm fire. The fireboat house was built the following year. During the 1930s, the house was occupied by Fireboat Engine 77, the tower used to dry out the wet firehoses. In 1959, the station changed to Marine Company 7 and remained in operation until 1970. Subsequently, the largely abandoned industrial waterfront began a long process of revitalization. From 1976 to 1982 the boathouse served as headquarters to the Fulton Ferry Museum and National Maritime Historical Society. Today it is home to Ample Hills Creamery.

"Empire Stores Warehouse. Showing the Empire Stores warehouse buildings with weeds, wooden pallets, and the shell of an automobile on the street in front of the buildings. Partial view of Robert Gair's cardboard box factory building, located at 1 Main Street, 1968."

Bliss Works, Brooklyn,ca. 1910-1915. A building with a long and storied history. Built between 1891 and 1901 it originally was one of a number of buildings in the neighborhood that housed the factories of the E. W. Bliss Machine Company. The former factory is one of the longest remaining artist live/work loft buildings, and the location of a major Loft Law litigation. It housed a paper recycling plant on the first floor until 2014 which also played a part in a major mafia sting operation in the 1990s. Artist such as String, KRS-One and Q-Tip have shot videos here. And it is the first "safe house" location in the dystopian future of the online video game "The Division."

Front Street warehouse, ca. 1958.

Water and Dock Streets, ca. 1890. Opened in 1869, the Empire Stores was the center of operations for the Arbuckle Bros. Coffee Company. One of a number of "stores" that lined the Brooklyn waterfront (for the movement, processing, and housing of cotton, lemons, jute, tobacco, sugar, and coffee), this building is only one of two that survive. These brick warehouses were vast and dark spaces. A number of architectural features facilitated the buildings functions including, the large openings for easy hoisting goods and massive metal shutters that kept the elements, fire, and thieves out. Abandoned in 1945, the building remained empty for decades. In 2016 the building was finally reopened as a retail hub, featuring restaurant and high end stores, as well as an annex to the Brooklyn Historical Society.

A. Zerega's Sons building (background) at 28 Front Street, ca. 1935. Founded by Antoine Zerega, a French immigrant of Italian background, in 1848, Zerega's is the oldest pasta company in the United States. Zerega Avenue in the Bronx is named after the pasta maker. The company moved from DUMBO to Fair Lawn, New Jersey in 1952.

Oysters are one of New York's oldest residents. There's a reason food historian Mark Kurlansky refers to New York City as "The Big Oyster," or the oyster capital of the world. The bivalves were a dietary staple of the Lenape, and in the 1600s, the New York Harbor was home to half of the world's population of oysters. Oyster barges, such as the one pictured above, were built in the mid-19th century. The boats were approximately 20 feet in width and 70 feet in length and constructed to form a wedge as to not knock the sides of neighboring barges. Inside, the floors were bowed to allow for proper drainage. Robert S. Greenberg, a historian, said to the New York Times: "oystermen during that era would steer their small sailboats up to the rear of the barges and offload their catch, which barge operators would sell wholesale or serve fresh on the piers to lines of customers." The barges served as processing plants, where the fresh products were hauled in from ships at the back, and readied for sale to the front, where the barge met the pier. At the time, oysters were a food enjoyed by New Yorkers of all stripes and went for as little as six cents per piece. Barges often had a dual purpose as speakeasies, where the briny snacks could be had alongside alcohol. However, routine overfishing and pollution caused the eventual decline of the industry by the 1920s. In 1927, the city closed all off New York Harbors oyster beds due to contamination. Though most oyster barges disappeared after the beds closed, one such vessel was purchased by Ernest Ball and moved to the river-front neighborhood of Fair Haven in New Haven. It found use as a speak-easy and was later converted into a restaurant. In 2015, plans were unveiled to bring the barge back to New York, though it would be docked on the Red Hook waterfront rather than on the East River. The barge will be disassembled and labeled, piece by piece, then put back together in its original state, with some structural updates, in the New York Harbor.

View of Lower Manhattan from the Brooklyn Waterfront, east of the Brooklyn Bridge, ca. 1935.

My Archive Spring 2019 "The Brooklyn Bridge on its 100th-anniversary celebration. I was there with many friends, some of whom are in the photograph. May 24th, 1983." —Michael Castellano

Empire Stores warehouse buildings, viewed from New Dock Street, 1968. The Sweeney Manufacturing Company building, located at 30 Main Street, and Robert Gair's former cardboard box factory at 1 Main Street are visible in the background. Established in 1869, the Empire Stores is a series of seven separate warehouses. Shipping merchant James Nesmith built the first phase of four-story warehouses which were then known as “Nesmith & Sons Empire Stores.” The warehouses stored raw materials such as cotton, lemons, jute, tobacco, sugar, and coffee imported on cargo ships from Africa, South America, and Cuba. Business was so good that, in 1885, James’ son Henry Nesmith built the remaining five-story warehouses on the eastern end. Large openings on the water side facilitated easy hoisting of goods to and from the adjacent piers. During the 19th century, the Brooklyn waterfront was so completely lined with warehouses similar to Empire Stores that it was nick-named the “walled city.” The Empire Stores are among the few that remain. In the 1920s, the Empire Stores became part of Arbuckle Coffee, then the country's largest coffee business, and a significant presence on the DUMBO waterfront. Arbuckle managed every aspect of the Brooklyn coffee business: coffee beans unloaded into the Empire Stores were sorted, glazed, roasted, ground, packaged, and shipped in nearby buildings. The Arbuckle brand Yuban is still in stores today. Abandoned in 1945, the buildings remained empty for decades. The building was rehabilitated as part of the development of Brooklyn Bridge Park, and recently reopened as a retail hub, with restaurants and high-end stores, as well as the Brooklyn Historical Society - DUMBO.

Tenements and wood-frame dwellings on Garrison Street, a single block between Front and York Streets in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, ca. 1938. Arnold Eagle’s photo is part of his “One Third of a Nation” series, shot with David Robbins. The project document the living conditions in poverty-stricken New York City neighborhoods, and shared its name with a 1938 “living newspaper” production by the Federal Theatre Project dramatizing similar themes. Garrison is named for John Garrison, an early 19th century judge who also served as president of the Village of Brooklyn. At right in the middle ground, is Mercein Street, a single-block street named for Andrew Mercein, a political figure of the same era who lived on nearby Sands Street. Both streets were eliminated in the early 1950s to make room a westbound exit ramp from the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Today, a parking lot entrance roughly lines up with the former path of Garrison Street.

Located in the Fulton Ferry Historic District in Brooklyn, the Fulton Ferry Fireboat House was built in 1926 on the former site of the old Fulton Ferry Terminal.

Manhattan Bridge Overpass, ca. 1977. The site that gives DUMBO its name: Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.

Manhattan Bridge ca. 1936 The Manhattan Bridge, the first suspension bridge to use flexible steel towers, was built concurrently with the Queensboro Bridge. Gustav Lindenthal's technical innovations for the Manhattan Bridge, and his insistence on incorporating aesthetic elements into the design, were disapproved by Tammany Hall politicians and other powerful figures: Such political resistance prevented Lindenthal from acquiring funds or political backing for his design and eventually he and Hornbostel were replaced by designer Leon Moisseiff and the architectural firm Carrere and Hastings, respectively. Moisseiff altered Lindenthal's plan by substituting conventional wound steel cables for nickel-steel chains and by reducing the proposed size of the structure's tall stiffening trusses. It has been speculated that the real cause of Tammany opposition to Lindenthal's design was that it called for nickel-steel and therefore failed to provide business to the Roebling Company, the only one producing steel cables. Various explanations have been offered was to why the completed bridge could just barely support the necessary weight: that Moisseiff neglected to undertake certain critical calculations (he later designed the Tacoma-Narrows Bridge, Tacoma, Washington, which collapsed shortly after its 1940 opening, taking his career with it) or that inferior materials, inadequate to withstand predicted traffic-load pressures, were used. Whatever the cause, the Manhattan is the most troublesome of New York City's suspension bridge, although it has the greatest traffic capacity of the four East River bridges.

York Street at the Brooklyn Bridge looking north along Garrison Street, ca. 1935. Garrison Street was a small, crooked alley that ran from York Street (the road seen in the foreground) to Front Street. It ran parallel to the bridge for only a hundred or so feet then sharply turned to the north (right) where it ran perpendicular into Front Street. Named after John Garrison a butcher who became a judge and was later the first president of Brooklyn Village. While they survived the building of the adjacent Brooklyn Bridge, they were lost in the mid-century urban development and construction of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in the 1950s.

Constructed between 1896 and 1915, this 10-acre block complex was home to one of the largest grocers of imported commodities in the United States. Established in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the Grand Union Tea Company moved its headquarters to Brooklyn in 1896. By 1930, Grand Union had over 700 stores nationwide and shipped millions of pounds of coffee, tea, and other goods per year. Grand Union moved its headquarters to Elmwood Park, New Jersey in 1950. Today, the building stands as a reminder of DUMBO's importance to the growth of American commerce at the turn of the 20th century. The building is now condiminiums.

Fulton Ferry Fireboat House newly painted, circa 1975. Originally called the Marine Fire Boat Station, this wood-frame building and attached tower was built in 1926 for the New York City Fire Department’s Marine Company 7. It was used to hang and dry fire hoses. By the 1960s the Fire Department no longer had use for the building. It was empty and derelict for a number of years until the National Maritime Museum moved in, in 1976. They would move out six years later under pressure from Brooklyn government officials who wanted to open up the building to commercial use. Today it houses Ample Hills.

Written By Deborah Tint This story examines the Fulton Ferry House that once stood where Old Fulton Street met the water’s edge in Brooklyn Heights, one in a series of ferry buildings on that site. This story can be read in its original format here.

"Brooklyn: Main Street - Front Street. An old wood-frame building at the corner that had been in existence for more than a century in 1922."