Brooklyn Union Gas Company Building
180 Remsen Street | also 172 Remsen Street | Brooklyn Heights | built 1914
Open on the map6 entries
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.
- 1912
Brooklyn Union Gas starts buying lots next to its offices on Remsen Street for a new headquarters
James H. Jourdan, who had followed his father as president of the Brooklyn Union Gas Company in 1910, wanted one building that would hold all the firm's divisions. In 1912 the company began acquiring the properties just west of its existing offices. Three row houses stood on the site; the headquarters that opened in 1914 replaced them.
- 1914
Brooklyn Union Gas opens a new eight-story headquarters designed by Frank Freeman
The Brooklyn Union Gas Company, created in 1895 when seven major Brooklyn gas firms merged, began planning a new headquarters in 1912 and opened this eight-story building in 1914. Frank Freeman, one of the most successful Brooklyn architects of his day and best known for muscular Romanesque Revival buildings, gave it a neo-Classical design. The company called Remsen Street home for nearly half a century.
- 1914
Flaming torches and oil lamps decorate the gas company's Doric-style headquarters
Freeman gave the eight-story building a two-story granite base with Doric ornament and an entrance portico on fluted columns. Much of the applied decoration refers to the gas business: bronze window panels show torches and oil lamps, and the metopes above the entrance repeat the theme. A 1914 review in Architecture and Building praised its look of solid construction.
“Symbolizing the structure's role as the headquarters of a gas company, much of the applied ornament on the Brooklyn Union Gas Company Building incorporates devices associated with flames and illumination…”
- 1962
Brooklyn Union Gas moves to Montague Street and sells its Remsen Street building to St. Francis College
In 1962 Brooklyn Union Gas outgrew its Remsen Street offices and opened a new headquarters at 195 Montague Street. The old building was sold the same year to St. Francis College, which turned it into an academic facility. The exterior changed little, though a second entrance frame was set in front of the original doorway, with a wire sculpture of a Franciscan brother.
“The former headquarters building at 186 Remsen Street was sold in 1962 to St. Francis College and converted into an academic facility.”
- 2011
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the former gas company headquarters
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Brooklyn Union Gas Company Building a city landmark on May 10, 2011, after an August 2010 hearing. Three people spoke in favor, among them a representative of the owner, St. Francis College, plus the Brooklyn Heights Association and the Historic Districts Council. Community Board 2 also sent its support.
“Three people spoke in favor of designation, including a representative of the property owner as well as representatives of the Brooklyn Heights Association and the Historic Districts Council.”
- 2021
St. Francis College announces it will leave its Remsen Street home of nearly six decades
In May 2021 St. Francis College said it would move from 180 Remsen Street, its home since 1963, to the fifth, sixth and seventh floors of the Wheeler Building above the Fulton Street Macy's. The new space, due to open for the 2022-23 school year, was to total 255,000 square feet, against 272,000 on Remsen Street. The school said the old buildings had never been designed as a campus.
Source: brooklynpaper.com
Further reading
- Generoso Pope Athletic ComplexWikipedia
Nearby
- Montague-Court Building16 Court Street | 7 entries
- National Title Guaranty Company Building185 Montague Street | 9 entries
- Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce Building75 Livingston Street | 5 entries
- People's Trust Company Building181 Montague Street | 9 entries
- Brooklyn Borough Hall209 Joralemon Street | 6 entries
- St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church68 Clinton Street | 6 entries