Bronx Grit Chamber

593 East 132nd Street | also 158 Bruckner Boulevard | Mott Haven | built 1937

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. 1935

    A federal grant restarts the stalled Ward's Island sewage project and its Bronx grit chamber

    Construction of the Ward's Island sewage works was forced to stop during the Depression because of the city's finances. Work resumed late in 1935 with a Public Works Administration grant covering about 45 percent of the cost, and the Bronx Grit Chamber on Bruckner Boulevard was finally built in 1935-37.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1937

    October 16

    Bronx sewage first flows through the grit chamber as the Ward's Island works opens

    On October 16, 1937, regulators on the Bronx trunk sewers were opened and sewage passed through the grit chamber, built to screen out large solids and take out heavy grit, before a mile-long rock tunnel carried it to Ward's Island. In its first weeks the chamber had to cope with years of debris flushed from old Bronx sewers, and it kept working throughout.

    “On October 16, 1937, the Ward's Island Sewage Treatment Works was put into operation…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1937

    McKim, Mead & White gives a sewage plant a facade inspired by Ledoux

    McKim, Mead & White designed only the exterior of this building, its sole role in the sewage project. The Bruckner Boulevard front has four giant pilasters of alternating Roman brick and limestone on each side of a monumental arch, recalling the French architect Claude-Nicholas Ledoux's saltworks and Paris tollhouses. The granite base carries the words Department of Sanitation, City of New York and 1937.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1982

    June 8

    The Bronx Grit Chamber is designated a New York City landmark

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the grit chamber at 158 Bruckner Boulevard on June 8, 1982, after a hearing on March 11, 1980, where one witness spoke in favor and none against. The report, which names McKim, Mead & White as consulting architects, ranks its exterior among the most unusual industrial buildings in the city.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

All 173 buildings with stories in Mott Haven