Notice of Sale: Atlantic Basin and Red Hook Piers, 1901
Around 1895, the several and various Brooklyn dock and warehouse companies, including the Atlantic Dock Company, merged into a trust called the Brooklyn Wharf and Warehouse Company. Old monied names such as Pierrepont - there is a street named after the family in Brooklyn Heights - sold their Stores (warehouses) to the newly formed company. Other owners of Brooklyn wharves and warehouses merged their companies to form the new concern.
The Directors were:
J. S. T. STRANAHAN, President Atlantic Dock Co.
ALEXANDER E. ORR. David Dows & Co
WILLIAM A. NASH. President Corn Exchange Bank
GEORGE H. SOUTHARD. President Franklin Trust Co.
SAMUEL TAYLOR. JR.. McIntyre & Wardwell.
FRANKLIN WOODRUFF. Woodruff's Stores.
THEODORE A. HAVEMEYER. American Sugar Refining Co.
THOMAS, A. McINTYRE. McIntyre & Wardwell.
GEORGE W. YOUNG, President United States Mortgage Co.
JAMES TIMPSON. Ass't Trcas., The Mutual Life Ins. Co.
FRANCIS D. BEARD, Erie Basin Stores.
WILLIAM COVERLY, Henderson Brothers.
DAVID DOWS, JR., Dows and Columbia Stores
The official organization statement was:
"THE BROOKLYN WHARF AND WAREHOUSE COMPANY is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of New York for the purpose of carrying on the business of storage, wharfage, warehousing and the doing of all acts and things incidental to such business. The authorized and issued capital stock of the Company is $12,500,00"
The founders thought that one entity controlling all the shipping piers in Brooklyn could not lose. They were wrong. Very soon after forming, the corporation went backrupt.
The Supreme Court of New York oversaw its foreclosure and auction in 1901.
This newspaper clipping from the The New York Press, May 17, 1901, displayed here is a legal notice of sale for the Atlantic Basin and the piers directly north and south of it.
[Beginning text of notice:]
"SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, County of Kings. United States Mortgage and Trust Company as trustee plaintiff against Brooklyn Wharf and Warehouse Company, Empire Advertising Company, George A. Phelps, Frank Phelps, Charles H. Phelps, Howard Phelps, Albert A. Guilk, Alexander Phelps, Thomas C. Phelps and Char;es H. Phelps, Jr. copartners in business, composing the firm of Phelps Brothers & Company; Henry W. O Edyre, William Volkens, Paul Gotthell and William L. Walther, Copartners in business, composing the firm Funch, Edye & Company; Alfred Booth, Charles Booth, Charles Booth Jr., Julius Kuttner and Alfred A. Booth copartners in business composing the firm Booth and Company, Edmund Reeks, Harry Anderson Astlett and Thomas John Shipton Green, copartners in business, composing the firm Edmund Reeks & Company; Booth Steamship Company, Limited; and Henry Brocklehurst, Septimus Brocklehurst, George Brocklehurst and Frank Brocklehurst, composing the firm of R. Singlehurst & Company, defendants.
Notice is hereby given that in pursuance of a judgement of foreclosure and sale made in the above-entitled action at a Special Term of the Supreme Court, for motions, held in and for the County of Kings, at the Court House, in the Borough of Brooklyn, City of New York, on the 25th day of April 1901, filed and entered in the office of the Clerk of the County of New York on the 26th day of April, 1901 I, the undersigned, Sheriff of the County of Kings, named in said judgment of foreclosure and sale, will sell at public auction, to the highest bidder, as the salesroom of Thomas A. Kerrigan, No. 9 Willoughby Street, in the Borough of Brooklyn, State of New York, on Tuesday, the 11th day of June 1901, at 12 o’clock noon of that day, the mortgaged premises and property, rights, interests and franchises of the Brooklyn Wharf and Warehouse Company, described in said judgement of foreclosure and sale, and hereafter described, in one parcel. The mortgaged premises and property, rights, interests and franchises directed by the said judgement of foreclosure and sale to be sold and thereon described as follows, viz;
All these certain lots, pieces or parcels of land and the land under water situate, lying and being in the City of Brooklyn, County of Kings and State of New York and severally described as follows.
Empire Stores… [descriptions of the property lines omitted]
Fulton Stores…
Martin Stores…
Watson Stores…
Harbeck Stores…
Watson Stores…
Robert Stores…
McLean Stores…
Pierrepoint Stores…
Prentice Stores…
Woodruff Stores…
Columbia Stores…
Dows Stores…
Amity Stores…
Atlantic Dock Company…
Pinto Stores (Laimbeer)…
Nye Stores…
Biglow Stores…
Finley Stores [Finlay] (Equitable)…
Brooklyn Pier and Storage Co. …
German-American Stores (Remsen)
New York Warehousing Co. …
Merchants’ Stores (Brookman)…
Amity Stores…
Robinson Stores…
The approximate amount of the lien or change to satisfy which the above-described property is sold is … $18,538,366.38…."
