Standard Varnish Works Factory Office Building

2589 Richmond Terrace | Mariners Harbor | built 1931

Open on the map4 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1893

    Brooklyn Bridge veteran Colin McLean builds a towered brick office for the Standard Varnish Works

    Work on the bulkhead for Standard Varnish's Elm Park waterfront plant began in March 1892, and the factory buildings were mostly done by August 1893. Contractor Colin McLean, who had started out as a sandhog on the Brooklyn Bridge, built the complex and may have designed it. Its corner office on Richmond Terrace is two stories of red Roman brick in the American round-arched style, with corbelled cornices and a three-story tower.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1900

    May

    A dockside fire sends burning oil into the Kill van Kull, but this office survives

    The fire began in a machine shop by the dock and spread to seven large tanks of linseed oil and turpentine, which spilled into the Kill van Kull and Newark Bay and threatened ships in the harbor. Local firemen worked through the night and saved the buildings along Richmond Terrace, including this one, but lost the dock and roughly six brick storehouses. Insurance paid about half the damage.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1912

    Standard Varnish moves its offices out and turns this building over to storage and labeling

    This was the Elm Park plant's original office, and it had been doubled at the rear from four bays to eight by 1898. Around 1912 the company put up a new office at Houseman and LaSalle Streets and used this one for storage and labeling. By then the Elm Park plant covered more than seven acres with 45 buildings and sheds.

    “Around 1912 a new office building was constructed at Houseman and LaSalle Streets and this building was used for storage and labeling.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1982

    Varnish and chemical production ends at the Elm Park works after nearly nine decades

    After Standard Toch sold its industrial division to Montgomery Ward & Co., Ward ran the plant as the Standard T Chemical Company. Production here stopped in 1982, and in 1983 Drury Enterprises acquired this building and the rest of the complex north of Richmond Terrace. When the city designated it a landmark in 2007, the office was serving as a warehouse.

    “…this plant remained in operation until 1982. In 1983, this building and the rest of the factory complex north of Richmond Terrace were acquired by Drury Enterprises…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

All 2 buildings with stories in Mariners Harbor