H. Lawrence & Sons Rope Works Spinning House

The three-story brick building at 221 McKibbin Street in the East Williamsburg neighborhood was built before 1870 as part of a ropemaking factory. It is part of a complex of nine interconnected former industrial buildings built between 1845 and 1951 that was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. The building was no longer part of H. Lawrence & Sons Rope Works spinning house by the 1880s, and was instead S. Trier and Son, a cardboard box manufacturer. Over the course of the twentieth century, the building held a leather works, an accessories manufacturer, and a furniture maker, as well as a number of tenants in leased portions of the building or its additions. Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center (GMDC) bought the building in 2007 and undertook a renovation and restoration plan sensitive to historic preservation principles. GMDC leases out 19 units in the building for light industrial or artisanal usage.

Henry Lawrence & Sons Rope Factory adopted the use of a machine in 1869 that was invented by John Good of Grand St. in Brooklyn. The Good's Patent Flax and Hemp Spreader allowed a man and boy to do the work of five men needed on older machines. The machine took hemp from the bale and converted it into slivers by passing it through just one machine. An overheated machine had caused a fire in the company's rope factory in a building on Bushwick Ave. (the street at the west end of this block of McKibbin St.) in early 1862. Some loose hemp lying near the machine ignited and caused $500 in damage but was covered by insurance. In 1850, a more serious fire struck the company's ropewalk building that fronted on Bushwick Ave., causing $2,000 to $5,000 in damages, destroying about two-thirds of the building. Employment at "Lawrence and Sons rope and cord factory" decreased by late 1873 when an economic panic caused slowdowns across the country; the usual workforce of 300 men was reduced to 100, working at half time. Things were slow at another rope works next door on Bushwick Ave., Wall's Sons Ropewalk, where the workforce of 500 men, boys, and girls shrank to 200 workers, working at three-quarters time. With changing technology, long buildings were no longer needed to twist long strands of hemp into rope, and new uses were found for the former spinning house (221 McKibbin).

S. Trier and Son Cardboard Factory occupied most of the building by 1888 (see the map below). Subtenants leased parts of the building over its history, too. Buttons were being made in additions that stood on both ends of the building, with buttons being pressed on the first floor of the west addition (213 McKibbin) and being enameled on the one-story east addition. A patent medicine factory occupied the second (top) floor of the west addition. Within the main block of the factory, there was silk weaving happening on part of the first floor; the third floor was used for steam drying and braid weaving. In the rear yard was a one-story wood frame stable; an attached, one-story brick building had been burned out by 1888.

A leatherwork factory, the Manhattan Leather Company, occupied 221 McKibbin St. by 1901. A series of one-story additions were built on the north (rear) of the building in the early 20th century. The leatherworks and later a cosmetic accessories manufacturer, Columbia Products Corporation, used the building and some of its additions until the 1960s. A bit of excitement came to 221 McKibbin St. in May 1930 when two local policemen noticed a group of four men loitering in front of the leather manufacturing company (Laitman & Laitman Co.) building. As the policemen approached, two of the men escaped into a waiting cab. After a scuffle, the two remaining men ran from the police, who followed for several blocks, firing at the escapees. The two were caught about a block from the police station and confessed that they had been about to rob the business, where an armored car had delivered the $10,000 payroll. The pair confessed to several similar payroll holdups in other Brooklyn businesses.

The Laitman family added six more buildings to the factory complex on McKibbin St. Mitchell and George Laitman treated their 1,000 employees at the Columbia Plush and Puff Co. (221 McKibbin) to a day off in July 1936 due to extreme heat. The Laitmans arranged for the workers to take an excursion to Indian Point on the Hudson River. Columbia advertised in 1943 for female workers who could operate Singer sewing machines at 221 McKibbin; good pay, steady work, and overtime were mentioned.

The building at 221 McKibbin St. is part of a complex of nine interconnected former industrial buildings/ additions built between 1845 and 1951 that was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. The complex was found to be significant for its relationship to the history of manufacturing industries in Brooklyn.

Anonymous. "Village Affairs. Fires." Williamsburgh Daily Gazette (Brooklyn) June 17th 1850. 2-2.

Anonymous. "Fires." Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn) February 4th 1862. 3-3.

Anonymous. "Good's Patent Flax and Hemp Spreader." Times Union (Brooklyn) October 12th 1869. 3-3.

Anonymous. "Trade on the Island. Reports from the Leading Manufacturers." Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn) November 13th 1873. 3-3.

Anonymous. "Holdups Laid to Two Caught in Gun Chase." Standard Union (Brooklyn) May 20th 1930. 3-3.

Anonymous. "Heat to Close Factory." Times Union (Brooklyn) July 10th 1936. 2-2.

Columbia Products. "Help Wanted - Female. Operators." Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn) April 16th 1943. Classifieds sec, 23-23.

Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center. 221 McKibbin St., GMDC. Accessed March 16th 2022. https://gmdconline.org/gmdc_buildings/221-mckibbin-street/.