M.H. Renken Dairy Company

Designated June 16, 2015

The M.H. Renken Dairy Company Office and Engine Room Buildings are two structures with a unified design located at the corner of Myrtle and Classon Avenues in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill neighborhood. In the 1930s, Renken was at its peak, and in 1932, the company erected a new office building at 582-584 Myrtle Avenue designed by the prolific Brooklyn firm of Koch & Wagner. Four years later, Koch & Wagner renovated the circa-1860 building at 580 Myrtle Avenue to contain an engine room and storage space, with a new front facade that matched the design of the Office Building and gave both buildings the look of a single structure.

“Modernistic” in design and faced in tan enameled brick to convey a hygienic and efficient image, the Renken buildings are primarily Art Moderne in style, featuring patterned and dark-brick “speed lines” and bracketless, streamlined cornices, as well as Art Deco touches.

*Excerpt from the Landmarks Preservation Commission designation report

STATUS Designated Individual Landmark

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Clinton Hill

Clinton Hill has a variety of building types including row houses, mansions, stables, apartment houses, and institutional buildings. They were constructed during the 1840s into the 1920s and display the many styles popular over the course of nearly a century.

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Fern Luskin: Lamartine Place Historic District; Friends of Lamartine Place & Gibbons Underground Railroad Site

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Erika Petersen: West End Preservation Society

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Elena Martinez
City Lore, Folklorist
Bronx Music Heritage Center, Co-Artistic Director

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