Offerman Building

503 Fulton Street | also 248 Duffield Street, 244 Duffield Street, 497 Fulton Street | Downtown Brooklyn | built 1930

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Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1891

    May 1

    Sugar executive Henry Offerman's new department-store building opens on Fulton Street

    Henry Offerman, president of the Brooklyn Sugar Refining Company, put up the building for S. Wechsler & Brother, which left its old store on April 28, 1891 and reopened here three days later. The store drew so many shoppers that by 1892 an annex on Duffield Street was planned, and the firm became Wechsler Bros. & Co. that October. The shop had 20,000 square feet on each floor of its main wing.

    “S. Wechsler & Son closed its original store on April 28, 1891, and reopened at the Offerman Building three days later, on May 1.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1892

    Peter Lauritzen's Romanesque Revival store has its own power plant and seven elevators

    Danish-born architect Peter J. Lauritzen designed the building, whose central tower rose to 150 feet; because of its very high ceilings, it stood among Brooklyn's tallest structures at its 1891 opening. Its second basement held boilers, engines and elevator pumps, and the engines powered the building's arc lights. Pipes in the first basement's ceiling carried cash to a central cash room. After the 1892 expansion it had seven elevators.

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1895

    September

    Henry Offerman takes over the struggling store with a clearance sale

    The Wechsler brothers' store had struggled after the Panic of 1893, and in September 1895 the papers announced that Henry Offerman would take it over and run it himself. He advertised a huge clearance of the old merchandise, which he called the Gigantic Sacrifice Sale. The Wechslers moved to a much smaller building, and Offerman died in 1896 at age 74. A lease to Joseph Bauland followed in 1897.

    Source: brownstoner.com

  4. 1907

    September

    The Darlington department store never opens and the sheriff seizes the building

    After Chapman & Co. left in January 1907, businessman Ralph Leininger took over the building to open a department store called Darlington. He spent $75,000 on renovations before announcing in September 1907 that the October opening was postponed. The deputy sheriff seized the building and the store's assets soon afterward. The building then stood closed for two years while it was converted to offices.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1914

    Tax officials and Brooklyn's records move into offices above a bowling alley

    After the upper floors became offices, a 16-alley bowling establishment, Grand Central Bowling, opened in the basement in 1909. In 1914 the borough's Department of Taxation and the Hall of Records Department, with Brooklyn's records, moved in while the Hall of Records was renovated. Critics said the records needed a fireproof vault, and one official complained about hearing bowling below city business.

    Source: brownstoner.com

  6. 1924

    November 3

    Martin's department store opens to 20,000 shoppers in one day

    Hyman Zeitz, who ran a store next door, bought the building in 1922 and let leases expire one by one to claim the floors. The store opened as Greater Martin's on November 3, 1924, and 20,000 shoppers came through on opening day. It grew floor by floor and became best known for its bridal department.

    Source: brownstoner.com

  7. 1979

    Martin's closes and a developer outbids a plan to demolish the building for Alexander's

    Martin's moved out of the building in 1979 after almost six decades there. Seedman Manufacturing, which owned the chain, had announced in April that it would close the store as unprofitable. Soon afterward Rentar Development and Times Square Stores offered to buy the Offerman Building, tear it down and build a new store for Alexander's, but developer Richard Carroll, who planned to divide it among national chain stores, beat them out. Albert Laboz bought the building in 1979 through United American Land, and it survived.

    Source: Wikipedia

  8. 2005

    March

    The Offerman Building becomes a New York City landmark

    The Municipal Art Society and the Brooklyn Heights Association began petitioning in 2003 to landmark more than two dozen Downtown Brooklyn buildings, including this one. The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Offerman Building in March 2005. In 2006 owner Al Laboz said some offices on the upper floors had stayed closed off for four or five decades, and the building joined the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.

    Source: Wikipedia

  9. 2017

    The upper floors become 121 apartments

    The upper stories and the Duffield Street annex are converted to residential use, with 121 units. The lobby and entrance to the apartments are on Duffield Street. The original rotunda skylight, covered up for years, was restored.

    Source: brownstoner.com

Further reading

Nearby

All 28 buildings with stories in Downtown Brooklyn