ROASTING CORK IN A “HEIGHTS” FIRE (1907)
The Jehovah’s Witness complex in Downtown Brooklyn was once the scene of a roaring early morning 4-alarm fire that threatened to destroy the vast warehouse district that existed there in 1907.
Sitting along the waterfront at the location of the fire – on both Columbia Heights and Furman Street – was a cork company, a coffee roasting factory, and an ice plant.
SAVING THE WAREHOUSES
It is not known where exactly within the complex the fire broke out, but it was determined by many of the residents of the district that the aroma of burnt coffee and cork did not make for a attractive combination that morning. The “oily reek of cork” was in the smell of the smoke throughout the morning, while roasted coffee – roasted twice over – brought residents to realize which warehouses were caught within the conflagration.
The buildings in the picture above sat on what is now the Jehovah’s Witness compound and comprised a number of private homes that were still existent within the old warehouse district.
Among them was “a frame house of the old style sort, two stories in height, with a mansard roof for an attic.”
And in that building Catherine O’Neill, 50, and her bedridden sister, Agnes O’Neill, 65, both former “schoolma’rms,” feared for their lives.
SAVING THE SCHOOLMARMS
Patrolman Keating, who sounded the alarm, grew concerned as their building was shrouded in black smoke. No one had seen the two women that morning, and he “feared that something had happened to them.”
While he was removing O’Neill (the younger) from the house, several other patrolmen, climbed the stairwell to the top floor where they lifted Agnes from her mattress and, wrapping her in blankets, carried her “through the reeking hallways” to the streets. They were then taken to 9 Poplar Street, the house of a friend.
A Captain Behrenpohl, the librarian for the Hamburg-American steamship line, was also removed from the O’Neill house.
SAVING THE COFFEE
The “toughest job” for the Fire Department was to save the coffee roasting house on Furman, and they could only save them by soaking down the coffee beans with water and probably destroying thousands of dollars of materials.
“For there were streams of water running along Furman street laden with the beans.”
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The story you have just read was composed from extensive historical research conducted by The Brownstone Detectives. We perform in-depth investigations on the historic homes of our clients, and produce for them their very own House History Books. Our hardbound books contain an illustrated and colorful narrative timeline that will bring the history of any house to life. Contact us today to begin discovering the history of your home.
