I was staggering down 91st Avenue in what was western Richmond Hill or eastern Woodhaven just past the old Long Island Rail Road Rockaway branch overpass that some wish to turn into a vast north-south park and others want to make a new subway connection from the Queens Boulevard line to the Rockaways (nothing, by the way, will be done with it) when, about to collapse in the midst of an 8-hour trek in unbearable heat and humidity, I spied a valve cap bearing the inscription “Marcy Foundry”, “74 Beekman Street.” These are true relics; both the foundry, and the address, have disappeared unutterably, as I will do in a number of years.
According to the Indispensable Walter Grutchfield, Marcy Foundry was founded as Marcy Stove Repair as early as 1887 by Jacob Caesar, Otto Denis, and Arnold E. Hauser, who ran the foundry at 74 Beekman from 1893-1937. The foundry moved to Jersey City the next year and was listed in directories until 1951.
The address, 74 Beekman, hung in there until about 1970 when Beekman between Gold and Pearl Streets was demapped so that the Southbridge Towers housing project could be built there.
6/1/16