RENKEN’S DAIRY, FORT GREENE

EVERY so often I like to check in on my favorite buildings, one of which is the Renken Dairy offices at #584 Myrtle Avenue and Classon Avenue. The bottling plant is alos still standing, on Classon north of Myrtle. When I was a kid, Renken’s distributed milk to several stores in Bay Ridge, and I’m old enough to remember th4 milkman’s visits in the predawn hour, as he had a key to the inner door in our apartment building and duly placed milk, cream, etc. in a metal box located outside our apartment door.

In 1912 Martin Renken of the M.H. Renken Dairy Company bought the whole block, and in 1923, constructed a bank of industrial loft buildings along Classon that became 202, 204, 206 and 208 respectively. The buildings haven’t been fundamentally changed since they were first designed and built by Brooklyn architecture firm Koch and Wagner, all yellow brick and wood shutters and windows that don’t open. While the upper floors were used for pasteurization and bottling, the ground floor of 206 was used as a stable for horse-drawn carriages; a few years later, the stable was converted into a loading dock. The Classon buildings were one section of a three-part complex that also included 131-137 Emerson Place, built in 1924, and the main office at 574 Myrtle Avenue, built in 1918. Susie Cagle

The Renken Company moved to Middlebury, PA in 1962. The bottom floor was home to Wally’s Square Root Café when I first happened by, but is now home to a liquor store, Tipsy’s.

Good news since I was last here: the Renken plant has been named by the Landmarks Preservation Commission:

The Renken Dairy Company building is an unusual example of the Moderne style of architecture applied to a small commercial structure in Brooklyn. It was constructed as an office in 1932 for the Renken Dairy, established in Brooklyn in the early 20th century. One of several such businesses in the borough, the Renken Dairy’s location in Clinton Hill created a local source for the processing and supply of milk from farms outside the city for distribution to the local population. The Renken Dairy, like others from this period, originally consisted of a group of buildings where the milk was delivered, cleaned and pasteurized, and bottled, all while being kept cool by its own ice plants. This office structure and a nearby utilitarian garage are the only surviving sections of what was once a bustling complex. 

Since milk was considered a vital part of children’s diets, sources of clean, healthful milk were crucial to neighborhoods where families lived. Before easy refrigeration, it was necessary to build these processing plants throughout the city. Dairies and their milkmen were a fundamental part of the lives of most children at that time.

This office building was designed by the firm of Koch & Wagner in the Moderne style, popular in the early 1930s. This style was a simplified version of the earlier Art Deco style, featuring light colors and straight lines to provide a sense of dynamism related to machines and their speed, seen as emblematic of the 20th century. The building design is expressed through horizontal bands of red brick against a light brick background and projecting or recessed planes on the building’s facades. The firm of Koch & Wagner designed numerous industrial, commercial and residential properties, primarily in Brooklyn and Queens, from 1910 until 1951. This building serves as a reminder of an earlier, more pastoral time in Brooklyn’s history, when most neighborhoods had a local milk processor for local distribution to insure the product’s freshness and quality. LPC

I see something new every time I pass by. The lettering and typography of the signs is very typical of 1930s stylings; similar lettering can be seen on IND subway signs from the same era. I also had never noticed the “M.H. RENKEN DAIRY CO.” metal signage on the Classon Avenue side before!

Luckily, many dairy buildings have been saved and repurposed around town and I should gather them on one page.

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9/16/23