Brooklyn’s Williamsburg section an ag Halloween treat
October 31, 2013 | 04:53 PM
The derelict Domino Sugar refinery in the Williamsburg section of, Brooklyn, New York City. The original refinery was built in 1856, and by 1870 it processed more than half of the sugar used in the United States. A fire in 1882 caused the plant to be completely rebuilt in brick and stone, and those buildings remain, with alterations made over the years. The refinery stopped operating in 2004.BROOKLYN, N.Y. — The streets of the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, one of the hottest neighborhoods in New York City at the moment, will undoubtedly be filled this evening with costumed adults and children making the most of Halloween. But a recent Hagstrom Report Sunday tour revealed that Williamsburg is filled with the ghosts of agriculture past and future with a few redevelopment surprises along the way.
As The New York Times recently noted, Williamsburg is home to the vintage Domino sugar complex, which at one time refined half the sugar consumed in the United States. The refinery closed in 2004 but is set to be converted into a mixed residential and commercial project.
But the building still reeks of sugar, and the current controversy in the neighborhood is how the building’s industrial past will be honored in the new era. As the Times noted, “Sugar is everywhere around the long-shuttered plant — in hardened brown clumps that are perched on the beams and wispy stalactites that drape the machinery, in a shiny film that blackens the walls and a syrupy residue that slickens the floors.”
The Domino refinery has been landmarked, and current plans call for historical objects to be arrayed with explanatory signs on a five-block-long Artifact Walk, bordering a waterfront park, the Times said.
Williamsburg was a center of industry and working class immigrants in the early 20th century and is the setting for the novel “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.” But after a long decline it has benefitted from the high housing prices in Manhattan that have sent a new generation of hipsters and Wall Street bankers to find homes there.
Maison Premiere, an oyster bar in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, looks as though it could be in Paris. at right, patrons dining al fresco, European style. (Jerry Hagstrom/The Hagstrom Report)
Bees grow in Brooklyn, as this locally-produced honey attests to at a Williamsburg market. (Jerry Hagstrom/The Hagstrom Report)
Today the streets of Williamsburg are lined with restaurants that serve the locally grown, often organic products of New York farmers of the type featured by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., at her annual New York Farm Day in Washington.
Maison Premiere, a self-described “oyster bar and cocktail den,” looks like it should be in Paris, and has only a sign saying “BAR/Oysters” outside. The Brooklyn Brewery makes beer, and the Brooklyn Oenology Winery Tasting Room features the wines, ciders, beers and whiskies made in New York state. Brooklyn also has its own beekeepers and honey makers.
The nails on this skeleton have not been neglected in a Halloween display at Primp & Polish in Brooklyn. (Jerry Hagstrom/The Hagstrom Report)
Like many reviving small towns, Williamsburg also has its share of beauty parlors, but the neighborhood’s Primp & Polish nail art salon is attracting customers with a different sort of window display this Halloween season.
