Former Bushwick Minck Brothers & Company






Minck Brothers & Company began in Brooklyn with modest beginnings, incorporated with just $25,000 in capital split into $100 shares. Their business focused on soda, soda water equipment, and various other carbonated waters. Despite the straightforward mission, Minck quickly grew into a prominent name in Brooklyn’s beverage industry, especially in Bushwick, a neighborhood known for its breweries. They succeeded with consumer favorites like mineral waters, which were especially popular during Prohibition. But they also bottled porters, ales, and lagers, and even crafted a specialty celery and nerve tonic. Minck Brothers had ties with Consumers Park Brewery as well, selling their beer to meet local demand.




A Minck Brothers newspaper ad. 




But not all the company’s headlines were about drinks. Minck Brothers faced a few memorable lawsuits that grabbed public attention. In one such case, Mrs. Cathi Lang, a winemaker originally from Alsace, France, sued the company for $1,000. Mrs. Lang claimed this amount as payment for a “near champagne” recipe she’d sold them. Drawing from her expertise in the wine-rich Alsace region, she instructed Minck on how to make the drink, outlining the use of California Riesling wine, sugar, lemons, and raisins. However, Minck Brothers attempted to recreate her recipe without her oversight, leading to a disappointing result that didn’t live up to her standards. In court, Mrs. Lang explained her process in detail, persuading the jury that her method would have produced a high-quality drink. The jury sided with her, concluding that Minck owed her the payment they had initially agreed on.








Another lawsuit in 1931 brought even more attention to the Minck Brothers. Adeline Smith, a young woman of 20, was awarded a large settlement of $37,500 after an accident involving one of their soda bottles. On June 28, 1930, while handling a cream soda bottle at her father’s garage stand, the bottle exploded, sending a shard of glass into her eye. The accident caused her to lose sight in her right eye. Investigations revealed that a defective bottle from Peerless Glass Company, combined with an overcharged soda by Minck Brothers, had created dangerous pressure inside the bottle. Justice Davis, presiding over the case, ruled that both companies were liable for Smith’s injury, with the judgment covering her medical expenses and damages for her loss.



Despite these legal setbacks, Minck Brothers remained a fixture in the Brooklyn beverage scene, known for its mineral waters and spirited attempts to expand into creative beverages. While unfortunate, these incidents reflect a time when companies had to navigate new challenges in quality control and customer safety.




1940s NYC Tax Photo





Today, the former Minck Brothers bottling plant in Brooklyn has transformed from a bustling beverage hub into a residential building, now filled with tenants. The building changed hands in December 2015 for $900,000 and has since been renovated into housing, with the old yard area now used by a commercial business. This repurposing reflects a broader trend of Brooklyn’s industrial spaces finding new life as residential or mixed-use developments.



For collectors, a bit of Minck Brothers’ history still circulates online. Bottles from the company’s era occasionally pop up on eBay, though they tend to sell fast. The rising demand for vintage goods, from classic denim to unique collectibles, means that anything linked to this period is highly sought after. Those interested in the full story of Minck Brothers and the building’s architectural journey can check out an in-depth writeup on Brownstoner’s “Building of the Day” series, which highlights this Brooklyn landmark’s layered past.









Sources:



1. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. (1907, April 25). $1000 for recipe for "Near Champagne." The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, p. 5.

2. Times Union. (1911, June 9). State Capitol News. Times Union, p. 4.

3. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. (1907, August 25). Page 17. Retrieved from https://bklyn.newspapers.com/

4. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. (1931, August 4). High court gives girl $37,500; Eye lost by pop bottle blast. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, p. 2.

5. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. (1930, January 30). Soda pop bottle crash expected to end today. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, p. 15.

6. Building of the Day: 38-40 Park Street. Brownstoner.







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Lost Artworks & Graffiti of Bayside Oil Depot

Image
Within the imposing walls of the Bayside Fuel Depot , also known as the Bushwick Inlet Refinery, eclectic art pieces and vibrant graffiti adorned every available surface, creating a sensory overload that was both chaotic and mesmerizing. The cavernous oil tanks and sprawling rooms of the main building played host to a lethal dose of creativity, transforming the depot into an unlikely graffiti wonderland. I arrived intending to document the refinery’s industrial history but found myself captivated by the dizzying array of colorful art pieces that had claimed the depot as their canvas. Every inch of the immense white walls inside and out was covered in a smorgasbord of rainbow colors, shapes, lettering, and characters. Playful figures from Disney classics stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the abstract, the surreal, and the subversive, forming a visual tapestry that mirrored the diversity of the city itself. In my opinion, the Bayside Fuel Depot was on par with the legendary 5 Pointz graff
Read more

Echoes of the Oven: The Legacy of Nicetown Freihofer's Bakery

Image
Six years ago, I embarked on an exploratory journey through the forgotten corridors of a place whose name was unknown to me then. Only recently, with a bit of help, I unraveled the mystery: this place, archived in my memory and on my hard drive, was the Freihofer Baking Company. This discovery rekindled a special connection in my heart, remembering my early days in urban exploration in Philadelphia. It was here that I first tasted the thrill of exploring abandoned buildings, a passion that soon had me crossing state lines in search of that exhilarating, novel feeling once more. The neighborhood surrounding the Freihofer Baking Company was a stark canvas of socio-economic hardship, a desolate space that spoke volumes of its forgotten glory. I remember vividly the day I ventured there. Agile and swift, I maneuvered over a wall of large rectangular stones – a barrier against scrappers seeking to plunder valuable metals. These stones were a gateway to the past, leading me to the nearest op
Read more

St. Michael and St. Edward Church: A Cornerstone of Fort Greene

Image
For weeks, I had been orbiting the perimeter of the impending demolition of the Church of St. Michael and St. Edward, a once revered church in the heart of Fort Greene, like a moth drawn to a flame. The neighborhood, a patchwork of tight project housing, seemed indifferent to the fate of this historic edifice. The intel I had received suggested that entry was as simple as scaling a wooden fence, yet the timing had never felt right. Until one day, it did. With a mission in New Jersey looming, I knew it was now or never. The demolition was advancing at a startling pace, the church's twin steeples already reduced to rubble. The skeletal remains of timber beams and rusted steel frames peeked out from the ruins, a testament to the relentless march of progress. Summoning a surge of courage, I seized a moment of quiet in the bustling housing project and vaulted over the fence. My heart pounded in my chest as I slipped unnoticed into the church grounds. The once grand entrance now stood as
Read more

Herrmann Aukam & Co A Legacy of Handkerchief Manufacturing

Image
Founded in 1906, Herrmann-Aukam & Co. emerged as a key player in the world of handkerchief manufacturing, setting up its base in New York with factories in places like Lebanon, PA, Belfast, Ireland, and South River, NJ. Their property in South River was a sizable, industrious hub: a sprawling 128,000 square feet across five interconnected brick buildings, with two and a half acres of open land. There was even a railroad shed served by the Raritan River Railroad, linking it to the Central Railroad of New Jersey and creating a critical route for distribution. Originally, Herrmann-Aukam had acquired their first mill in 1882, and soon after, they began producing handkerchiefs in full force. Their products ranged from plain and hemstitched white handkerchiefs to the distinctive blue and red bandannas that became favorites among workers and mechanics. The company invested heavily in state-of-the-art upgrades, including a new power plant and Swiss embroidery machines. These machines allow
Read more