Montauk Paint Manufacturing Company Building
170 2nd Avenue | also 75 13th Street | Carroll Gardens | built 1908
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1907
Asphalt company president William Kelly files to build a three-story factory on 13th Street
William Kelly, president of the Brooklyn Alcatraz Asphalt Company, filed in 1907 for a permit to build a three-story brick factory on the corner of 13th Street and Second Avenue. It was to measure fifty by one hundred feet, with concrete roof and floors. The Montauk Paint Manufacturing Company was already named as its lessee.
- 1908
Civil engineer Garabed Heghinian designs the factory in a simplified round-arch style
The building was designed by Garabed George Heghinian, an engineer for Kelly's asphalt company who had come from Turkey to Boston in 1894 and graduated from MIT in 1900. He used corbelled brickwork and exposed structural elements in place of applied ornament. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle ranked it among the finest and most substantial fireproof factories in Brooklyn.
“Designed by Garabed George Heghinian, a civil engineer who worked for the Brooklyn Alcatraz Asphalt Company…”
- 1908
Frank and Margaret Cornell incorporate the Montauk Paint Manufacturing Company
Frank E. Cornell, Margaret Cornell and William J. Bryant were the directors when the Montauk Paint Manufacturing Company incorporated in 1908, and it became the building's first tenant. It occupied the third story and specialized in a varnish stain, a white enamel and paint for concrete floors. Frank Cornell held patents for metal-leaf paint processes and a new paint shipping carton, and the firm worked out of 170 Second Avenue for more than twenty years.
“The Montauk Paint Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1908 with Frank E. Cornell, Margaret Cornell, and William J. Bryant listed as the directors.”
- 1910
The Diamond Decorative Leaf Company, an early tenant, incorporates
One early tenant at 170 Second Avenue was the Diamond Decorative Leaf Company, incorporated in 1910 by Robert E. Hastings, Julius Fichtmueller and James Kilsheimer. Fichtmueller, a German immigrant living on Staten Island, held several U.S. and Canadian patents on decorative gold leaf.
“The Diamond Decorative Leaf Company was incorporated in 1910 with the directors Robert E. Hastings, Julius Fichtmueller and James Kilsheimer.”
- 1942
Norge Sailmakers leases the factory to make sails and boat covers
In 1942 the Norge Sailmakers Corporation leased the building from William Kelly's estate and made yacht and sailboat sails and covers for pleasure craft. The property was sold to the Norge Realty Company in 1948 and to Camp Affiliates, Ltd. in 1950. It stayed a manufacturing building into the 1960s.
- 2019
The city designates the Montauk Paint Building a landmark
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building on October 29, 2019. At the September 24 hearing 13 people spoke in favor, among them representatives of Council Member Brad Lander, the Historic Districts Council and the Gowanus Landmarking Coalition, and the commission received 32 written statements of support. The report describes the former factory as now owned by Neo-Bauhaus Design Factory and used as an artist studio.
“The Commission received support for the proposed designation from 13 people ... The Commission received 32 written submissions in support of designation.”
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