Past and Present: New York Dock Company Warehouses

A look at Brooklyn, then and now.

By the beginning of the 20th century, Brooklyn’s waterfront was the most important commercial entity in New York City. It’s hard to believe now, since it’s all virtually gone, but at one time, the piers and their adjoining warehouses and railroad lines were developed and busy, from the Brooklyn Bridge, through Red Hook, Sunset Park and on to Bay Ridge. That is a huge amount of waterfront, once bustling with men, truck, trains and ships, all moving vast amounts of goods here and there; everything from coffee to subway cars.

The two and a half mile stretch of piers, warehouses and train tracks between the Brooklyn Bridge and Red Hook’s Erie Basin belonged to the New York Dock Company. The company was the successor of the old Brooklyn Wharf and Warehouse Company, the company associated with some of Brooklyn’s oldest merchant names and places, like the Pierrepont and Woodruff families, and the Empire Stores. The Dock Company bought them in the largest foreclosure sale to date, in 1901, which at the time also included the docks and warehouses between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges: the DUMBO area. They sold that part in 1911, still leaving a huge amount of shoreline, which was divided into the Fulton, Atlantic and Baltic Terminals.

The Dock Company was a direct competitor with the huge Bush Terminal in Sunset Park, and was run in much the same way. Goods came in via the water from all over the world, were off-loaded into the huge warehouses that lined the piers, and were shipped out via rail, trucks, or other ships. They owned 35 piers, 150 warehouses, two factories, grain elevators, three rail terminals, tugboats, car-float bridges and more.

The Atlantic Terminal was located at the foot of Ferris and King Streets, in the Atlantic Basin, just off of Buttermilk Channel. It was a T-shaped protected harbor with piers on either side. New York Dock began infrastructure improvements upon purchase, and built up the docks, piers, railroad tracks and bulkheads. In 1912 they began building two huge concrete warehouse buildings along Imlay Street, both 460×80 foot structures, each six stories tall. The structures, designed by Maynicke & Franke, who designed many other such warehouses for the Dock Company, took almost a year to build, due to weather constraints, but were finally finished early in 1913.

With much fanfare, in 1912, the Dock Company announced that the tenant for 160 Imlay Street would be Montgomery Ward, the mail order giant. Montgomery Ward was the first mail order retail business, founded in 1872 by Aaron Montgomery Ward, in Chicago. He had been a rural salesman, and noticed that quality goods were often not getting out into the rural areas because local buyers didn’t have access to products, and had no guarantee of quality. He put together some inventory, published a one page catalogue with pictures, descriptions and instructions, and the rest is history.

After a fitful start, due to the Great Chicago Fire, his business itself was on fire; by 1883, his “Wish Book” had grown to 240 pages and over 10,000 items. His biggest competitor, Sears-Roebuck & Co. didn’t arrive until 1898. Aside from the number of products, Montgomery Ward prided his business on the adage he coined, “satisfaction guaranteed, or your money back.” By 1920, there were several large distribution centers across the country, and sales overall exceeded $100 million. This warehouse received goods from freighters from all over the world, where it was then sent out to other distribution centers. I had a hard time pinning down exactly what they did here, aside from receiving, storing and re-shipping goods. It does not seem as if they filled catalog orders here, but I could be wrong.

The twin to this warehouse, next door, at 162 Imlay, was rented out to smaller companies who handled all kinds of goods, and at one point, was the largest raw cotton storage facility in New York. However, next door, Montgomery Ward, apparently did not stay there as long as was hoped, by either tenant or landlord. During World War I, the building became a government army base, as were many warehouses along the Brooklyn Waterfront.

The entire shipping and storage set up of the New York Dock Company, as well as Bush Terminal, were perfect for the war effort, making it easy to ship supplies and men over to Europe. So perfect, that the Army commissioned their own warehouse and shipping facilities after the war, creating the massive Army Terminal complex in Bay Ridge. The Montgomery Ward warehouse was used for baling uniforms and other materials for the front. I don’t know if the army took over the entire warehouse, and shared it with MW, or if MW moved out.

In any case, after the war, in 1919, the NY Dock Company leased the warehouse to the American Can Company. There would be other tenants as well, over the years. As we all know, Brooklyn’s shipping and warehouse industry would not last forever, and pretty much began dying after World War II. NY Dock lost the Fulton Terminals to the BQE in the 1940s, and their competition, Bush Terminal went bankrupt in 1971, and was purchased by the City. New York Dock consolidated its operations, but ceased functioning in 1983. The Atlantic Terminal limped along under the New York Cross Harbor Railroad, but closed in 1992, and the piers were converted into passenger cruise ship terminals.

Today, of course, shoreline property is hot, and desired for residential conversion. 162 Imlay was leased by Christie’s Auction House for its use as a state of the art, climate controlled facility. 160 Imlay, the old Montgomery Ward warehouse, was bought for residential conversion. It was gutted, and then the delays began as the developer wrangled with the city over its conversion into a 153 unit condo building. The city wanted to keep the building industrial, there were lawsuits. Now the current developer is planning a 72 unit, mixed-use condo building with markets, restaurants and artist space, as well as apartments. GMAP