Coignet Stone Company Building
360 3rd Avenue | Gowanus | built 1981
Open on the map8 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.
- 1873
William Field and Son design a cast-stone office and showroom for the Coignet company
The Coignet company's sales office at Third Avenue and Third Street was designed by William Field and Son and nearly finished by June 1873. It was built of Beton Coignet, a precast stone the company made at its adjoining factory, and doubled as a showroom with sample statuary, panels, columns and pediments inside. Its two-story concrete facade sits on a raised basement.
“The building was designed not only as a company office but also as a showroom for the company's artificial stone products.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1873
Brooklyn papers praise the new concrete showroom among wooden neighbors
When the building was completed, Brooklyn Society Magazine called it an ornament to the city. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle described it as a very attractive edifice, set against the wooden buildings around it, and Brooklyn Review said its look from a distance was almost irresistible.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1873
The Coignet Agglomerate Company goes bankrupt despite a full order book
In October 1873, only months after the Gowanus office and showroom were nearly done, the Coignet Agglomerate Company declared bankruptcy. It had been busy supplying stonework for churches and houses in Brooklyn and other places. It auctioned off its patents in April 1876 and reorganized the next year as the New York Stone Contracting Company, which closed in 1882.
“Despite its large number of orders, in October 1873, the Coignet Agglomerate Company declared bankruptcy.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1882
The Brooklyn Improvement Company moves into the Coignet building
Once New York Stone Contracting folded, the Brooklyn Improvement Company moved into the building, which did not appear on city maps until 1882. The company, which developed sites along the Gowanus Canal, used it for about seventy-five years, until it closed in 1957. Lewis Mumford noted the lone office in 1952.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2006
The city landmarks the Coignet Building after Whole Foods buys the surrounding site
Whole Foods bought the surrounding structures in 2005 and agreed to renovate the Coignet Building, at an estimated $1.3 million. The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building on June 27, 2006, and at that time it was the oldest known ferro-concrete building still standing in the city.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2014
A search for the rumored tunnel to Litchfield Villa finds nothing
Edwin Clark Litchfield, who founded the Brooklyn Improvement Company, was said to have had a tunnel built from the Coignet building to his villa, in the area that is now Prospect Park and roughly 0.7 miles from the building. Nothing turned up in a 2014 search for any such tunnel.
“…rumored to have built a tunnel from the Coignet Building to his Litchfield Villa in what is now Prospect Park. A search in 2014 failed to uncover evidence…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2014
Restoration removes the faux facade and rebuilds damaged cast stone
Work began in March 2014. Crews took off the faux-stucco facade, and a contractor mended and rebuilt damaged parts of the historic cast stone. The exterior was finished in early 2016, and the New York Landmarks Conservancy gave the work its Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award that year, though the interior stayed unrestored.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2023
A white limewash coat on the landmark prompts a Landmarks Commission violation, later rescinded
In 2023 a thick white coating appeared on the restored facade, and a reader tipped off Brownstoner. In July the Landmarks Preservation Commission issued a violation for painting without permits, which was soon rescinded. The coating was limewash, which the commission had approved with the rest of the restoration; it protects the concrete but wears off and has to be redone. The building was being offered for $2.7 million.
Source: brownstoner.com
Further reading
- Coignet Stone Company BuildingWikipedia
Nearby
- The Bell House149 7th Street | 6 entries
- Old Stone House336 3rd Street | 6 entries
- Public Bath No. 7227 4th Avenue | 8 entries
- William B. Cronyn House271 9th Street | 5 entries
- Park Slope Community Church251 12th Street | 5 entries
- Montauk Paint Manufacturing Company Building170 2nd Avenue | 6 entries