The Kind of Things That Were Made on Tiffany Place

Here's a kind of follow up to last week's item exposing the falsified origins of the name of Brooklyn's Tiffany Place. (No stained glass, plenty of other factories.) A regular reader, in response, sent me images from two maps that laid out the one-block street. One was the famous one by city planner Richard Butt. He's the man who gave Carroll Gardens its deep front gardens. His map was from 1846, two years before Louis Comfort Tiffany was born; more proof that the street wasn't named after a factory the man had on Tiffany Place.

The other document was an 1886-88 Sanford series map that shows the area is wonderful detail. As I've said before, Tiffany Place was a corridor of industry, all through the 19th century and into some of the 20th. This map shows how much industry, and some of the specific enterprises. Here's a list:

H. Behr & Co. Sandpaper Factory
Hobbs & Co. Wallpaper Factory
Pierce & Co. Paint Company
Doug Meyer Spring Company
Thomas Watson & Co. Plug and Smoking Tobacco Company
Union Spring Company
Corset Steels Factory
Tin Shop (no name)
Paper Stain Works
Candy Factory (actually on Hicks, but close enough)

There was a big fire on Nov. 5, 1892, that demolished many of these concerns. There was $300,000 in damages. The conflagration started at Hobbs' place, and it, Walther & Co. fancy paper manufacturer, Sperry & Beagle upholsterers, a small button factory, and several tenements.