Former Kickstarter headquarters (Eberhard Faber pencil factory)
62 Kent Street | also 58 Kent Street | Greenpoint | built 1895
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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.
- 1872
A fire destroys Eberhard Faber's Manhattan pencil plant and he moves to Greenpoint
Eberhard Faber's pencil plant by the East River near 42nd Street, the first pencil factory in the United States, was destroyed by fire in May 1872. He decided to restart quickly in Brooklyn and acquired a large Greenpoint site that already held factory buildings, buying the building from Francis Gove. The new plant was running within three months, and it kept growing over the following decades.
- 1895
Theobald Engelhardt designs a factory beside Francis Gove's 1860s Italianate building
The Italianate factory at 58 Kent Street was one of several buildings put up in the 1860s by Greenpoint iron merchant Francis Gove; Faber acquired it in 1872. About 1895 the A. W. Faber Company added a German Renaissance Revival factory at 60-64 Kent, designed by the Brooklyn architect Theobald Engelhardt. Most of both buildings was torn down before the mid-1980s, but parts of their street fronts, including cast-iron lintels, survive.
“…the Italianate style 58 Kent Street, which was one of the buildings constructed by iron merchant and Greenpoint resident Francis Gove in the 1860s and acquired by Faber in 1872…”
- 1956
The Eberhard Faber Pencil Company leaves Brooklyn, ending its time in Greenpoint
The Faber plant that began in Greenpoint after the 1872 fire grew into a major Brooklyn factory, with a workforce of hundreds, most of them women. Besides low-cost pencils it made pen holders and related stationery. The company stayed in Brooklyn until 1956, when it left the complex that now forms the Eberhard Faber Pencil Company Historic District.
- 2012
Kickstarter buys the gutted factory shell at 58 Kent Street for $3.6 million
Kickstarter was in contract to buy the building by 2011 and closed on it in 2012, paying $3.6 million and planning $3.9 million more for renovation. A previous owner had gutted the two-story, 29,000-square-foot building in the mid-1980s after plans for a hotel failed. Co-founder Perry Chen said the purchase showed the company's long-term outlook. The Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously approved the renovation plans in March 2012.
“Kickstarter was in contract to purchase a portion of the complex by 2011 and finalized its purchase the next year.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2014
Kickstarter opens its renovated headquarters with a block party and art show
Kickstarter staff moved into the renovated building in January 2014, and the company opened it to the public with a block party and art show that April. A Killer Queen arcade cabinet was set up for the party and stayed afterward. The graffitied brick front was kept as found, and the restoration later won awards from the New York Landmarks Conservancy and the Municipal Art Society.
“Kickstarter opened its headquarters with a public block party and art show in April. The company hosted a Killer Queen arcade cabinet for the block party…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2022
Kickstarter lists the building for sale at $29.5 million
Kickstarter stayed a distributed company after the COVID-19 pandemic, with every employee on a remote arrangement. By 2022 its Greenpoint headquarters was on the market at $29.5 million, a price later cut to $25 million. A Curbed writer said the listing turned the 29,000-square-foot space from a model of 2010s office design into a relic of how people once worked.
“By 2022, the property was listed for sale at $29.5 million, later reduced to $25 million.”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- 58 Kent StreetWikipedia
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