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Fulton Street Mall, Brooklyn

Summary

The A.I. Namm & Son Department Store building at 450-458 Fulton Street is the sole surviving portion of the important enterprise that once covered nearly one entire block, and despite the alteration of its base, remains a significant architectural and commercial feature of downtown Brooklyn. Adolph I. Namm was a Polish immigrant who transferred his Manhattan upholstery and embroidery trimmings business to Brooklyn in 1885. He opened a new store in 1891 at No. 452 on the stretch of upper Fulton Street that was becoming Brooklyn’s commercial nucleus. Namm’s business expanded into a highly successful department store that made him quite wealthy. Benjamin Harrison Namm, his son, succeeded in running the firm, which became A.I. Namm & Son. By the 1920s, Namm’s was one of the largest such American stores, in competition in Brooklyn with Abraham & Straus. This structure, Namm’s last architectural phase, was built in 1924-25 and 1928-29 to the design of architects Robert D. Kohn and Charles Butler, and consists of a structural steel frame with reinforced concrete floors, clad in Indiana limestone with bronze trim. The highly sophisticated, elegant modern design, with a rounded corner, contrasts monumental sculptural masonry piers, vertical window bays, and decorative bronze spandrel panels. The design was undoubtedly by Kohn, one of the few American architects who had produced aesthetically noteworthy and interesting work (c. 1905-15) influenced by the Vienna Secession. He explored a different modern aesthetic in the 1920s, a period when American architects were searching for modern architectural forms through various avenues. In 1957, this Fulton Street property, then Namm-Loeser’s Department Store, was purchased by the parent firm of Abraham & Straus and adapted for offices and stores.

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

A.I. Namm & Son