Satan's Laundromat: July 2005

Williamsburgh Savings Bank 2

07/28/05

Flatbush Avenue

Cambodian Cuisine, South Elliott Place

Masonic Temple & Queen of All Saints Catholic church

BAM Harvey

Habana Outpost, "New York City's first solar-powered restaurant and flea market"

Former Dime Savings Bank of New York, and Fulton Mall

Brooklyn Tech

Above Fort Greene, Brooklyn. More about the building in the previous entry.

12:50 AM | Comments (24) | TrackBack (4)

Williamsburgh Savings Bank 1

07/25/05

The magnificent Williamsburgh Savings Bank Building at Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues, the tallest building in Brooklyn, now holds mostly dentists but is slated for conversion into condos; the cathedral-like 63-foot-ceilinged banking hall on the ground floor, which is perhaps New York's greatest interior and certainly Brooklyn's, will be converted into a restaurant. (See it now, while you still can: the HSBC bank closes September 30th.) Its four-sided clock, 450 or so feet above the ground, was the world's largest until 1962.

Despite its name, the Williamsburgh (not Williamsburg) Savings Bank Building is in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, not Williamsburg. Its dome was intended to echo the earlier, much more terrestrial, domed bank building in Williamsburg near the bridge entrance and Peter Luger's. When built, this was the tallest structure between Manhattan and Paris.

These views are from the highest occupied floor in the building. More about the building here, here, here and, er, here. And, of course, Joe's amazing panorama.

The observation deck seen from above used to be open to the public but was closed in 1977. It still has explanatory signs describing the locations of Revolutionary War battles in Fort Greene.