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Photo courtesy of Loop.net The One That Got Away: A Lumber Mill, Some Idiots, and a Call I Don't Regret Some stories don't have a satisfying ending. This is one of them. And I've been carrying it around long enough that I just need to put it down somewhere. J and I drove out to Torrington on what should have been a straightforward documentation run in 2023. The target was the former Hotchkiss Brothers Lumber Mill on Water Street, sitting on the east bank of the Naugatuck River. We scoped it on the way in, circled the block, found our parking spot, and liked what we saw. Entry looked manageable. The building looked intact enough to be worth the effort. We were ready. We crossed through the Stop & Shop parking lot in the full summer heat, shoppers drifting past us with their carts, completely indifferent. We clambered over a wall, pushed through branches that swatted us in the face, and followed the sound of the Naugatuck moving over rocks somewhere below. The grass...
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Historic S.W. Bowne Grain Storehouse
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What had remained from the continuing demolition with the BQE highway in the background.
🌾 S.W. Bowne Grain Storehouse Update — July 2026
The historic S.W. Bowne Grain Storehouse, a landmark of Red Hook's industrial waterfront since 1886, was demolished during the summer of 2018. The demolition followed a significant fire that had severely damaged the structure, and was carried out over Labor Day weekend without a city permit or demolition order.
As of July 2026, the site at 595-611 Smith Street is now a construction storage lot, serving the ongoing development and redevelopment projects in the surrounding Red Hook and Gowanus neighborhoods. The property remains owned by the Chetrit Group.
Consisting of a two-block complex, this four-story 200 by 80-foot brick building featured end-gabled structures with a central transverse firewall and eight round-arched window bay openings. This storehouse was accompanied by a feed mill removed in 1904-1915 and a feed storage building also on the lot.
A warehouse that once fueled New York City's four-legged transports throughout the area. The warehouse was established in 1886 as a storehouse for grain, feed, and hay processing, which also included a feed mill. The large property owner and independent operator Samuel Winter Bowne became noted on the New York Produce Exchange as having the commercial capacity to store 600,000 bushels onsite.
Eventually, the storehouse complex no longer became a major economic engine for the City once in the 1930s, the city moved away from horses to cars and trucks as canal grain traffic started to dry up as grain processing started to shift away from canals to containerization, large-capacity grain floating elevators, and bulk railroad cars. For a time, the property was being used for cargo and stevedoring companies but became abandoned by 1960.
In 2018, a fire broke out on the property, causing severe damage to the storehouse. Unbeknownst to the city and preservationists, the building was demolished over the Labor Day weekend without a permit or demolition order from the city.
Today the property is owned by the Chetrit Group, which has developed several projects throughout Brooklyn, including Hotel Bossert in Brooklyn Heights, 9 DeKalb in Downtown Brooklyn, and M500 Hotel in Williamsburg.
🌾 Did You Work at or Remember the S.W. Bowne Grain Storehouse?
Were you a worker at this historic Red Hook grain facility, a local resident, or someone with photographs or memories of this iconic Brooklyn warehouse before its 2018 demolition? Share your stories of this waterfront landmark that once held 600,000 bushels of grain.
📩 Share Your Memory
or drop a comment below — full credit given to every contributor
⬇ Keep Reading — More Brooklyn Waterfront & Industrial History
🏙️ More Brooklyn & NYC Port Stories
From grain storehouses and oil terminals to breweries and warehouses — explore the changing face of Brooklyn's industrial waterfront.
The Hospital Nobody Bothered to Ruin In my world, attention is what kills a building. This one sat in the dark for thirty years, and nobody came. That may be the only reason it gets a decent ending. I drove past this place for years and never once wanted to go in. That sounds strange coming from me. Finding a way into empty buildings is what I do. But I knew this hospital by sight long before I knew anything about it, because it sits on the road I took to the old International Silver power plant , and every time I passed it I thought the same thing: not worth it. Boarded up. Dark. Picked over. Nothing in there for me. I want you to hold onto that, because it turns out to be the most important fact in this whole story. How A Hospital Dies Twice Hospitals are the trophy. Everybody in urban exploring knows it. There is something about them that pulls people in harder than a factory or a school ever will, and I understand why. You are walking through the rooms where people were...
🚧 The Vewer Avenue Tunnel Update — August 2026 ⚠️ Important Safety Notice: The Park Avenue Tunnel is currently active and open to vehicular traffic . It is not a pedestrian space . Entering the tunnel on foot is strictly prohibited and extremely dangerous . The tunnel was closed for construction and rehabilitation between 2017 and late 2023, a period during which the graffiti documented in this post appeared. That window of access has now permanently closed . The artwork that once covered the walls has been painted over, and the tunnel is once again a busy thoroughfare for cars. 🚗 Do not attempt to visit, explore, or enter this tunnel. Trespassing on an active roadway is not only illegal but also life-threatening. The risks of entering a live traffic tunnel—including fast-moving vehicles, limited visibility, and lack of pedestrian infrastructure—are severe. This documentation serves as the historical record ...
I was driving towards what used to be the Consumers Park Brewery when something caught my eye—the wooden gate doors of the old auto parts store were wide open. Someone had broken in. The building had been vacant for years, even as new construction surged all around it. Right next door, a fresh, modern structure had risen, but this place remained untouched—a relic of the past hollowed out and forgotten. I pulled over without hesitation. These moments don’t come often. A while back, another shuttered dealership had been left open for months, its entrance exposed. Graffiti artists had made their mark on the metal gates, turning the abandoned space into an urban canvas. I had thought about exploring it, but before I could, the gates were suddenly chained shut overnight. The opportunity was gone. Not this time. This time, I wasn’t letting the moment slip away. I stepped inside, finally getting a look at what had been hidden behind those rolled-down gates and green plywood barriers. An...
Located halfway between Albany and New York City lies Beacon. Located in the state hiking park is Denning's Point Brickworks which turned out clay bricks before exhausting the resource by producing as much as 400,000 bricks for New York City's flourishing building boom in the early 20th century. Manufacturing the very bricks that make up the iconic Empire State Building and the Rockefeller Center. Since its initial operation in 1885, it has also produced other products such as concrete, paper clips, and composite wood before coming to end in 1980. Second-floor landing. Intricate graffiti. Currently, the building is being slated for renovation by Clarkson University's Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries for use as an environmental education facility. Titusville Two-Story Boiler. Unknown condition. View from the roof. 🧱 Did You Work at Dennings Point Brickworks? Were you or a family member employed at this legendary Beacon brickw...
While exploring the area for a different site, I stumbled upon this abandoned property, marked by a large pile of household refuse and debris from commercial demolitions, improperly discarded. As night began to fall, I hesitated to venture inside alone. This caution might have been fortuitous, for on a subsequent visit to Newark, New Jersey, I discovered a makeshift bed crafted from an oversized couch. It seemed someone might be using this as a makeshift sleeping area, unwittingly inhaling potentially lethal chemicals not meant for human respiration. The entry to this forsaken place was through a semi-open truck loading dock, obstructed by a concrete barrier, presumably to halt further looting of the structure or to deter unethical contractors from dumping their illegal waste under the veil of night. Once an industrial site, this property was marred by environmental pollutants such as metals, paint, and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. Ninety-one years ago, it was operational before fa...
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