DESIGNATION REPORT Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) Central Power Station Engine House Landmarks Preservation Designation Report Designation List 515 Commission BRT Engine House LP-2639 October 29, 2019

DESIGNATION REPORT Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) Central Power Station Engine House LOCATION Borough of Brooklyn 153 2nd Street (aka 322 Third Avenue, 340 Third Avenue) LANDMARK TYPE Individual SIGNIFICANCE The monumental BRT Central Power Station Engine House is a prominent reminder of the era when the Gowanus Canal was a significant inland waterway and the Gowanus neighborhood was a major industrial center. Landmarks Preservation Designation Report Designation List 515 Commission BRT Engine House LP-2639 October 29, 2019

“New Central Station,” The Street Railway Journal, February 14, 1903 LANDMARKS PRESERVATION COMMISSION COMMISSIONERS Lisa Kersavage, Executive Director Sarah Carroll, Chair Mark Silberman, General Counsel Frederick Bland, Vice Chair Timothy Frye, Director of Special Projects and Diana Chapin Strategic Planning Wellington Chen Kate Lemos McHale, Director of Research Michael Devonshire Cory Herrala, Director of Preservation Michael Goldblum John Gustafsson Anne Holford-Smith REPORT BY Everardo Jefferson Matthew A. Postal, Research Department Jeanne Lutfy Adi Shamir-Baron EDITED BY Kate Lemos McHale and Margaret Herman Landmarks Preservation Designation Report Designation List 515 Commission BRT Engine House LP-2639 October 29, 2019 3 of 25

Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) Central Power Station Engine House 153 2nd Street, Brooklyn Designation List 515 LP-2639 Built: 1901-04 Consulting engineer: Thomas E. Murray Landmark Site: Borough of Brooklyn Tax Map Block 967, Lot 1 in part, consisting of the land beneath the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) Central Power Station Engine House. Calendared: June 25, 2019 Public Hearing: September 24, 2019 On September 24, 2019, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on the proposed designation of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT) Central Power Station Engine House as a New York City Landmark and the proposed designation of the related Landmark Site (Item No. 2). The hearing was duly advertised in accordance with the provisions of the law. Fourteen people testified in support of designation, including a representative of the owner, a representative of Council member Brad Lander, and representatives of the Gowanus Landmarking Coalition, Historic Districts Council, The New York Landmarks Conservancy, The Municipal Art Society of New York, Friends & Residents of Greater Gowanus, and the Park Slope Civic Council. No one spoke in opposition. LPC received 33 emails in support of designation. Landmarks Preservation Designation Report Designation List 515 Commission BRT Engine House LP-2639 October 29, 2019 4 of 25

Summary capacity than any engineer in history. The three original brick facades are bold yet BRT Central Power Station Engine House restrained, gaining much of their impact from the structure’s immense size, simple massing, and multi- story window openings. Embellished with simple Classical and Romanesque Revival-style ornament, significant features include: quoining, round-arch moldings, an arched corbel table, bluestone string The former BRT Central Power Station Engine courses, and on the west facade, facing the Gowanus House is one of the most prominent buildings on the Canal, a stepped entry portal. Gowanus Canal. A monumental link to the area’s Despite decades of neglect and the removal industrial past and a significant structure in the of the roof, the former BRT Engine House remains development of mass transit in New York City, this largely intact and prominent in the Gowanus large red brick building was constructed in 1901-04 neighborhood. In 2012, the abandoned structure was by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, which acquired by the Powerhouse Environmental Arts gained a near-monopoly over Brooklyn’s railroad Foundation

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