Designated September 13, 2016
The Empire State Dairy Company Buildings are significant industrial buildings in East New York. Consisting of a prominent ensemble of six late-19th and early-20th century industrial buildings, they represent the changing tastes in industrial building design around the turn of the 20th century and the manufacturing history of the neighborhood, and showcase a significant development in the milk industry. The earliest buildings in the ensemble, designed by Theobald Engelhardt and constructed in 1906-1907, are Renaissance/Romanesque Revival style buildings with unique terra-cotta details. The 1914-15 annex, which may incorporate sections of earlier buildings on the site, was designed by Otto Strack.
While constructed as four separate buildings, their Atlantic Avenue facades read as a unified, almost symmetrical composition designed in the Abstracted Classicist style with simple yet strong Secessionist details, particularly in the center building. The focal point is its two polychromatic ceramic tile mosaics depicting pastoral scenes. These mosaics are thought to be some of the largest decorative tile installations from the American Encaustic Tile Company.
*Excerpt from the Landmarks Preservation Commission designation report
