Our Buildings: 178 Classon Avenue

What makes a neighborhood? People, pets and the stories that make up our days. But we also have our buildings, the places where we work, play, eat, sleep, learn and live. Throughout Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, you will find everything from colonial brownstones to housing projects to luxury apartments: buildings that have been here since the earliest days of this country. Have a building you think we should highlight? Let us know in the comments or email us at TheNabe@TheNabe.me.

Picture Clinton Hill in 1932: it is seven years before World War II, refrigerators cost more than a Model-T and a dairy company had just built a milking plant at 178 Classon Avenue. Back before refrigerators became a mass-produced appliance, keeping milk fresh was a major problem. The answer? Move the dairy to the city. That’s what Martin H. Renken did.

Renken, a German immigrant, founded the dairy in 1888 before moving operations to Clinton Hill in 1932. While the cows were housed in the warehouse at 178 Classon Avenue, the main offices were just down the street in an art deco building on Myrtle Avenue. At the time, the M.H. Renken Dairy Company was the third largest dairy in New York City, producing around 7 million quarts of milk annually at its peak. But by the time the company closed in 1959, there was little need for a neighborhood dairy, thanks to the popularization of household refrigerators.

Since then, the Renken buildings have housed several businesses. Neighborhood preservationists have advocated for granting landmark status to the Renken office building on Myrtle Avenue since 2012, citing the historical value of the brick façade. However the application is still under review, according to the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The warehouse itself isn’t pretty, to say the least. If you were to walk by it, you would be forgiven for brushing it off as yet another warehouse, with its walls stained by age and nondescript loading docks on Classon Avenue. The only thing that outwardly remains of 178 Classon Avenue’s history is the brick tower that still tops the building, displaying the company’s name to this day.

The M.H. Renken Dairy Company was built for a purpose, one that it served for almost a century. The building stands as an example that not every building is or should be beautiful to be historic. Just because it’s a little on the plain side, doesn’t mean that its not worth our love.