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The Domino Sugar Refinery, located in Brooklyn, New York, was constructed in 1882 by Theodore A. Havemeyer, Thomas Winslow, and J.E. Thomas. Settled on the Williamsburg waterfront, this sugar refinery was the largest plant by the late 19th century. A quarter of a century after its opening, the Domino Sugar Refinery was producing more than half of the nation's sugar. The American Sugar Refinery Company and the Domino Refinery grew to control most of the U.S. sugar industry. However, after WW2, a two-year-long worker's strike, and lack of demand, the Domino Sugar Refinery finally closed its doors in 2004. Declared a city landmark in 2007, the sugar refinery is no longer standing, completely demolished by the end of 2014. Although the factory itself no longer exists, the expansive Domino Park continues to display equipment that was salvaged from the refinery. 

Domino Sugar Refinery 

Here's a simple stroll through downtown Williamsburg starting from the Marcy Ave. subway stop. Head west and explore historic buildings south of the Williamsburg Bridge, ending at the waterfront.

The building at 240 Broadway is one of four cast iron-fronted structures that are still standing on lower Broadway in Williamsburg. The others are the first Smith-Gray building (103 Broadway, built in 1870), the second Smith-Gray building (corner with Bedford, 1881), and the Sparrow Shoelace Factory (195 Broadway, 1882). Architect Theobald Engelhardt was a very busy man in the late nineteenth century. The building at 240 Broadway is one of hundreds he designed, many of which were in the heavily German-American neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Bushwick. The front facade of the building, which seems to be the only cast iron front Engelhardt building, curves slightly to follow the alignment change of the south side of Broadway.Louis Zechiel was a native of Baden, Germany and apprenticed as a furrier. Zechiel emigrated to the U.S. in 1848 at age 22 and married Carolyn Voltz, another German native. Louis became a successful fur manufacturer after establishing his business in 1856. Zechiel's store was on Broadway near Union St. for many years, where he specialized in fancy furs and sleigh robes. Louis passed many of the responsibilities for business operations to one of his four sons, William, in 1880. William was the oldest of the five Zechiel children and was born in New York in 1851. After returning to Germany to study at his grandfather George Zechiel's school in Baden, William was educated at the Hoboken Academy in New Jersey. William started working as a helper in his father's fur business at age 15. Louis died in 1896. By 1897, a number of other businesses shared the upper floors of the building at 240 Broadway with the fur business: Thomas McGovern undertakers' supplies, C.W. Loomis &amp; Sons neckware, pants manufacturer Troutman &amp; Company, and two upholstery manufacturers. The ground floor commercial spaces held a barber shop and a shoemaker in 1897. William Zechiel closed the fur manufacturing business and shut down the showroom in 1898.A one-story rear addition to 240 Broadway contained a shoe factory by 1918. Cigars were being manufactured in the building by The Plaza Cigar Company by 1922, with Ben Lichtenstein as factory supervisor. A cafeteria and liquor store operated out of the storefronts by 1939, below a bowling alley and unknown factory operations. The bowling alley was named Williamsburg Bowling Center by the early 1950s when it was sued after a teenager was injured by a malfunction of its coin-operated Mercury Athletic Scale, a strength-testing machine.

The brick building at 240 Broadway in the Williamsburg neighborhood was added to the National Register in 2021. The five-story brick building with a cast iron front was built as a new factory and store in 1891 for Louis Zechiel's fur business, which closed in 1898. Three stores occupied the ground floor by 1904, with a sweater manufacturer and tailor on the second and third floors. The upper floors were converted into 24 apartments which are now condominiums. The ground floor commercial spaces hold a lighting fixtures business and a nail salon.

Building at 240 Broadway

Three lots on South Ninth Street were purchased in September 1852 to build the church, covering about 75 feet along the road, 110 feet deep. The church building was designed by architect Thomas Little. Ground was broken in November 1852 and the cornerstone of the rectangular, Italianate style building was laid on January 11th 1853. The church is composed of brick on a rough stone foundation, clad in brownstone with metal and wood trim on the street-facing side. The exterior was meant to blend into a residential neighborhood instead of towering above it. The main facade is symmetrical with entrances on either end and a low pedimented temple design; the cornice blends in with those of the neighboring townhouses. One of the neighboring buildings, to the west (left) of the main facade (177 S. Ninth St.), was built in 1868 as the church's rectory. The narrow arched windows reveal the second-floor gallery. The interior of the simple rectangular church was designed to create as much seating as possible, with as little obstruction as possible between the congregants and the preacher.Thomas Kinnecut Beecher was the pastor of the New England Congregational Church for only four years (1851 to 1854). The congregation was formed after a preliminary meeting held in Brooklyn at the Fourth Street home of Dr. Edwin Cole on March 18th 1851. Beecher held the first services on April 5th 1851 at Central Hall, on the corner of Fifth and South First Streets. Central Hall was destoyed in a fire in 1853, and church services moved to the Odeon, a public hall on Fifth Street between South Third and South Fourth Streets. The first services were held in the new church in July 1853. The new pastor in 1854 was Henry B. Elliott. In 1855, the church was no longer within the Village of Williamsburg after the village was incorporated into the City of Brooklyn. The church's new pastor in 1856 was Reverend William R. Tompkins, who served until 1864. Leonard W. Bacon took over the position in 1865 and left in 1870. A parsonage was built next door in 1868 at a cost of $10,000. By February 1869, the congregation numbered 234. W.H. Thomas was the pastor by 1889.The original interior was lost in a fire in 1894. The upper-level gallery design was replicated in the remodeling, under the plans of architectural firm J. B. Snook &amp; Sons. The church was purchased by the Lutherans by the 1910s. The building housed a German Evangelical Lutheran Church by 1918 ("Evangelische Lutherische Immanuel Kirche"). In 1955, after a century of being within the City of Brooklyn, the Lutherans sold the building, and the church became an Assemblies of God Pentecostal Church. The church building was restored in the late 1980s/ early 1990s. The church continues to serve this denomination as Light of the World Pentecostal Church ("Iglesia Pentecostal La Luz del Mundo"). The church offers videos of services in Spanish.

The brick and sandstone church building at 185 S. 9th St. in the Williamsburg neighborhood was built in the early 1850s for the New England Congregational Church. Thomas Kinnecut Beecher was the New England preacher who became the church's first pastor. Beecher was the brother of abolitionist preacher Henry Ward Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of the book Uncle Tom's Cabin. The Italianate style structure became an Assemblies of God Pentecostal church in 1955. The church building became a New York City landmark in 1981. The church building and its adjacent rectory, built in 1868, were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The church is now known as Light of the World Pentecostal Church.

New England Congregational Church building

One of the most striking architectural landmarks in Brooklyn was almost allowed to be destroyed by time and the elements. The Williamsburgh Savings Bank, which was completed in 1875 after five years of construction, The building featured hand cut mosaic tiles in the floor and walnut and mahogany woodwork throughout. Doorknobs and fixtures were custom made to feature the initials "WSB." The building, with its striking dome, instantly became a Brooklyn landmark. Not only was the building one of the city's most easily recognizable structures, the bank was also highly successful. By the mid-1920s, it was the largest mutual savings bank in Brooklyn and the fourth largest in the United States. The bank regularly received deposits from account holders in countries around the world. For much of the twentieth century, the bank was an integral part of Brooklyn's economy. But as the city's economy declined, so did the bank's. By the late twentieth century, a series of mergers brought the bank into the HSBC group. HSBC sold the property in 2010 for $4.5 million. The buyer was Juan Figueroa, the owner of a Williamsburg hostel. Figueroa spent two years renovating the building, the most extensive work done on the building since its construction. The once grand building was in a state of decrepitude when Figueroa began its renovation. As part of the restoration, years of paint were stripped from woodwork. The marble tiles for the floor were ordered from the same English company which made the originals and still had the molds and the exact colors. The "WSB" doorknobs were replicated throughout the building, and the lavish murals on the dome's interior were restored. The restoration was exacting enough that the New York Landmarks Conservancy awarded it the Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award. The lavishly restored building is now an event space, known as Weylin B. Seymour's, a nod to the initials found throughout the building. The Williamsburgh Savings Bank building is a New York City Landmark and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Brooklyn's Williamsburgh Savings Bank was built between 1870 and 1875.  Designed by George B. Post, the striking building was immediately seen as a Brooklyn landmark. Post would go on to design such important buildings as the New York Stock Exchange. The WSB, easily recognizable because of its great dome, was the center of Brooklyn's commercial life for many years, but by the late twentieth century, the building had fallen into disrepair, in spite of being a landmark. Since 2010, the building has undergone an extensive restoration and now functions as an event space.

Williamsburgh Savings Bank

The Williamsburg Art &amp; Historical Center resides in the former Kings County Savings Bank. This structure was built between 1860 and 1867 in the Second Empire Style, which is characterized by classical elements, sturdy construction, and a mansard roof. William H. Wilcox and Gamaliel King are credited with the architectural design. The primary construction material is Dorchester sandstone. The building is three and a half stories tall, the half owing to the faux attic space at the top. Despite being a commercial building, the Kings County Savings Bank resembles a Second Empire mansion, many of which once existed throughout the area. This is in line with standard architectural practices for displaying wealth in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. A pedimented porch recalls Greek and Roman domestic designs. Each of the three floors display slight variations in window shaping and brickwork, possibly a reference to the first modern banks, which utilized similar styles during the Italian Renaissance. Each of the three floors of the Kings County Savings Bank are a single large room. The first floor once served as the lobby of the Kings County Savings Bank, which catered to some of the most famous American industrialists like the Carnegies, Vanderbilts, and Rockefellers. In fact, over a tenth of the United State’s wealth once flowed through Williamsburg. The second floor of the bank was known as the Ceremonial Room, and hosted weddings and award ceremonies. Both the first and second floor feature large cast iron Corinthian columns placed throughout the space. The top floor was used as a ballroom. Many elements of the building have been conserved over the years, such as marble moldings, a gas chandelier, and wooden paneling and floors. However, the authentic mahogany wood staircase was removed for a steel and concrete replacement in the early twentieth century.As the fabric of Williamsburg began to shift near the turn of the nineteenth century, the Kings County Savings Bank followed suit. The wealthy industrialists moved away, and the bank evolved to cater to less affluent customers. The second and third floors of the bank building were converted into a co-ed business school. At some point in the early twentieth century, the Kings County Savings Bank left entirely and was replaced by a different financial institution. Various banks continued to occupy the building until the 1980s. In total, the building served the banking industry and local populations for over one hundred years. Yuko Nii purchased the Kings County Savings Bank building in 1996. Nii is a Japanese artist who immigrated to the United States as a young adult and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Interested in transforming the community of Williamsburg, Nii created the Williamsburg Art &amp; Historical (WAH) center to give upcoming artists a space to exhibit their work. Also talented carpenter, Nii applied her previous experience renovating run-down houses to transforming the historic bank building into a space appropriate to host the arts. WAH has consistently applied for grant funding to conserve and restore its historic home.The WAH is based on Nii’s Bridge Concept. This idea envisions WAH as a diverse hub of cultures and artistic styles. The center particularly strives to connect disparate communities and promote emerging artists. “Wah” means peace or harmony in Japanese, and this is what Nii believes artistic collaboration will accomplish. WAH has collaborated with artists from over a dozen countries. The center has hosted over two hundred art shows featuring more than three thousand artists, and also staged over one hundred fifty performance events with more than one thousand performers. For her work with WAH, Brooklyn Borough President, Howard Golden, named Nii one of Brooklyn’s Women of the Year in 1998. In 2001, New York Governor George Pataki also honored Nii by naming her one of New York States’ Women of the Year. WAH continues to be a community driven art hub and cultural center.

The non-profit Williamsburg Art & Historical Center (WAH) was founded in 1996 by Japanese artist Yuko Nii. WAH is housed in the former Kings County Savings Bank, which was built between 1860 and 1867 in a French Second Empire style. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was a nexus of financial activity in the early twentieth century. Nii purchased the building to fulfill her vision, referred to as the Bridge Concept, to create a space that would bridge diverse artists of all disciplines from all parts of the globe. In Japanese, “WAH” means peach, harmony or unity. WAH serves as a diverse hub of arts and cultures.

Williamsburg historic walking tour, Brooklyn, Marcy Ave. subway stop to waterfront

Domino Sugar Refinery

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