The limestone exterior and art deco windows before they were peeled away (courtesy PropertyShark)
Art deco elements stripped from former Woolworth’s in Downtown Brooklyn
Another piece of Brooklyn history, gone
Another piece of Brooklyn history has disappeared. The remaining remnants of the art deco facade of the former Downtown Woolworth’s have been stripped away, reducing it to a generic block of concrete poised for redevelopment.
Construction permits show that the historic building, located 408 Fulton Street, is undergoing redevelopment for the Foot Locker that’s currently open on the first floor. Workers have disposed of the art-deco characteristics of the 85-year-old building, including the vertically-oriented aluminum windows, cornice and limestone exterior.
Opened in 1937, the air-conditioned building was considered a marvel at the time. According to Brownstoner, the department store was a replacement for its other location at 366 Fulton St. that it had outgrown. The “new,” three-story location was 10 times the size, with a bakery and a lunch counter.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle at the time oohed and ahed over its “modern features, particularly those designed for the comfort and salesgirls.” The store employed about 300 people, 270 of those being “girls,” it reported.
F. W. Woolworth closed all of its stores in the late 1990s. The Brooklyn location housed a variety of stores after that, including a Zales and a a discount store.
It’s unclear at this time what the building will look like in the future, but it won’t be historic art deco.
A 1937 ad for the building in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle
