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June 29, 2006
Pippin Gets Its Place in History
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously voted for my favorite little building, lovingly nicknamed Pippin after the radiator shop that used to inhabit it, as an individual landmark. After so many depressing reports about historical buildings as of late, this news made me grin.
Apparently, Pippin was one of the nation's first concrete structures. It was designed by William Field and Son and built between 1872 and 1873 to serve as the main office of the New York and Long Island Coignet Stone Company. Coignet is a type of concrete ("artificial stone") that originated in Paris during the mid-19th century. The company had a factory on the Gowanus and created many of the architectural details for buildings such as St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and others.
The Commission's report notes some historical information that I did not know and disproves some of the information that I had originally written about or at least the historical order in which I presented it. NY/LI Coignet Stone was the first inhabitant of Pippin, not Edwin Litchfield's Brooklyn Improvement Company. They moved into the site at some time after 1882.
It is good to know that the building is protected in some way. That only means many more seasons of Pippin photographs. Let's watch how the world changes around it.
3rd & 3rd Gets Landmarked [Brooklyn Record]
Commission Landmarks Brooklyn Office Building [NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission]
Posted by callalillie at June 29, 2006 12:10 AM | City Life
, History
Posted by: eliz at June 29, 2006 11:46 AM
Yes, or for some reason, that little plastic toy barn that mooed when you opened the doors.
Posted by: corie at June 29, 2006 2:15 PM
THis was never a residential house. A family never lived in this building.
This was build as an office for the stone company. (Now didn't we once have a vary different attitude of industrial sites in this city? --that is before industry developed it's durty name.)
Today we are so quick to blame the contimination in this area on what took place in the 19th century--when companies were building structures like this one. It was in the 20th century that this area was really trashed. So now the city is acknowledging this long ago past as something to hold onto.
Posted by: comments at July 1, 2006 1:37 PM
no one ever said that this was a residential building.
Posted by: corie at July 1, 2006 8:03 PM
