Gowanus Lounge: Serving Brooklyn

The Memory of a Gowanus Sweatshop

February 25th, 2009 · 10 Comments

540 President Street
[Photo courtesy of Jack Szwergold/GL Flickr Pool]

Sometimes we’re guilty of seeing buidings and not thinking about once took place in them. How people were worked to the bone. Abused. Underpaid. Denied unions. Or exposed to things that cut short their lives. This is the remains of a sweatshop in Gowanus on a street that is supposed to become to a bunch of hotels. Mr. Szwergold writes: “This is the other side of the building that housed the sweatshop my mom worked in during the late 1970s/early 1980s. R.I.P. mom.” The buiilding is at 540 President Street. A permit was issued in December to renovate it as office space.

Tags: Gowanus

10 responses so far ↓

  • 1 rick // Feb 25, 2009 at 8:52 am

    I wish you people at this blog would get the infomation you report correct. I lived next door to this building my entire life and it was not a sweat shop ever. It was an air-conditioner company called Typhon’s. Once again new comers reporting incorrect info about South Brooklyn. I wish you would ask someone like me, a Brooklyn historian before you post bullshit.

  • 2 Jack // Feb 25, 2009 at 1:16 pm

    Rick, you are 100% wrong. And if you do indeed live next door to this building you obviously have problems reading signs or maybe even knowing signs are there.

    Specifically, the address for the sweatshop my mom worked in was located on the other side at 505 Carroll Street. The place when she was there was known as “J & A Knitting Mills” and their phone number was 718-797-9400. Do a Google search for “718-797-9400 Knitting” see for yourself. Please don’t bother whoever has that number now since they seem to have 100% no connection to the company that had that number in the 1970s/1980s.

    Now back to 540 President Street. The sign that is right there, right now and intact on the building “E&J Home Fashions, Inc. – 540 President Street – 3rd Floor”

    If you know anything about labor practices for places like this, names change all the time to avoid raids or getting shut down. It’s a known secret.

    So yes, I’m sure at some point other manufacturing or repair moved into a space there. But your claim of ” it was not a sweat shop ever” is laughable, and wrong.

    “I wish you would ask someone like me, a Brooklyn historian before you post bullshit.”

    The only thing “Brooklyn”about you “rick” is you are a classic, overbearing, bullying Brooklyn asshole.

    My parents survived World War II in the 1940s.
    Moved to Israel in the 1950s.
    Moved to America in 1963.
    I was born in 1968 in Brookdale Hospital in Flatbush.
    Proudly raised and lived in Brighton Beach from 1968 to 1992.
    Moved to Park Slope in 1992.
    Stayed there until I moved to the midwest in 1995.
    Moved back to NYC in 2000 and now live in Boerum Hill.

    So who exactly are you calling “you people at this blog”, rick?

    I suggest spending some time knowing your neighbors. And if any of them recall the sweatshop that was truly once there I would love to know if they remember my mom or even have pictures.

    Because guess what? My mom used to “kibitz” he old Italian ladies on Carroll Street and even knew a few of the cats that lived there back in the day. Since that was the most she really talked about her experience there.

    Enjoy your day, rick.

  • 3 Jack // Feb 25, 2009 at 2:21 pm

    Oh, I’d also like to add that when I zoom into this specific picture posted, the one sign on the right side next to the graffiti covered fence reads:

    Norbrook Industries
    Actionwear
    550 President Street
    Brooklyn, NY 11215
    718-802-1878

    So please rick, get to know your neighborhood.

  • 4 chris // Feb 25, 2009 at 2:47 pm

    I’m told by the new owner that it used to be a bread bakery, actually.

  • 5 charmedlife // Feb 25, 2009 at 4:51 pm

    Brooklyn historian? Mr. Szwergold said his mother worked there and it was a sweat shop. Why would he say that if it wasn’t true?

  • 6 Jack // Feb 25, 2009 at 9:52 pm

    Chris, said my fill above, but do you realize that one building can have many uses? One floor is a sweatshop. The other is a bakery. Another is whatever else?

    Heck, the “Pasta Factory” building in Williamsburg that was converted into illegal housing had an illegal matzoh factory in the basement.

    Chances are the new owner is only talking about the most recent past and the last tenant. Then again, I find it hard to believe that someone would purchase a space that large and wouldn’t know that garment manufacturing happened there.

    Heck, if you bought a building and you knew there was a sweatshop there and someone you don’t know comes up and ask you “What was here before?” you’d freely admit, “Yeah, there was a sweatshop here…”

    The thing about a lot of newbie NYC nostalgia is it’s so sugar-coated. My mom actually liked working there and brought home bootleg Jordache and Sasson merch they pumped out back in the day.

  • 7 rick // Feb 25, 2009 at 10:07 pm

    I remember it being a knitting factory, but at 4pm they were out the door,,a sweatshop works 16hr shifts,,and I don’t appreciate you calling me an asshole,,where did you live?

  • 8 harry // Feb 26, 2009 at 7:44 am

    rick,

    leave jack alone.

    he cant help being self important.

    oh, and quit being an old brooklynite also. its not flattering.

  • 9 solidago // Feb 26, 2009 at 10:05 am

    They were still doing a lot of garment work in there up into the last year – I walk by the building every day, and up until recently there’d be trucks delivering cloth, and dumpsters full of cloth scraps outside. That block has seen a lot of changes in the past year…

    They’ve been working on the building like mad in the past few months.

  • 10 charmedlife // Feb 27, 2009 at 7:57 am

    Rick just admit it, you are pissed off at the “new” people who now live in Park Slope because they were smart enough to buy in “your” neighborhood and you were not. You missed the boat, don’t be bitter about it, move on.