Domino Sugar Refinery

About

The Domino Sugar Refinery is a mixed-use development and former sugar refinery along the East River in the neighborhood of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York, United States. When active as a refinery, it was operated by the Havemeyer family's American Sugar Refining Company, which produced Domino brand sugar and was one of several sugar factories on the East River in northern Brooklyn.

The family's first refinery in Williamsburg opened in 1856 and was operated by German-born Frederick C. Havemeyer Jr., the son of American Sugar's founder. After a fire destroyed the original structures on South Third Street and Kent Avenue, the current complex was built in 1882 by Theodore A. Havemeyer, Thomas Winslow, and J. E. James. The American Sugar Refining Company grew to control most of the sugar industry in the United States by the late 19th century, with the Brooklyn refinery as its largest plant. Many different types of sugar were refined at the facility, and it employed up to 4,500 workers at its peak in 1919. Demand started to decline in the 1920s with advances in sugar refining and the construction of other facilities, but the refinery continued to operate until 2004.