The History of Williamsburg, New York
Like many neighborhoods along Brooklyn's waterfront, Williamsburg in the mid-19th Century was a popular resort for the moneyed set who built sea side mansions or stayed in luxury hotels on the East River and spent their leisure time visiting beer gardens and private clubs.
Later the waterfront location proved ideal for the docks and warehouses serving distilleries, foundries, shipyards, sugar refineries, and internationally known corporations such as Pfizer Pharmaceutical, which still maintains a presence in Williamsburg, Havemeyer & Elder's Sugar Refinery, which until 2004 produced Domino Sugar, Hecla Architectural Iron Works, which produced the bulk of the bronze and ironwork for Grand Central Terminal, and Schaefer Brewing Company, which operated in the community from 1916 to 1976.
As in Greenpoint, the capitalists running the manufacturing concerns generally lived in the community and Williamsburg featured many 19th Century homes. However, most of the elite moved on after the opening of the Williamsburg Bridge in 1903 when new residents, including immigrants from the Lower East Side, flooded the six-story tenements in the neighborhood. Between 1903 and 1917, the population of Williamsburg more than doubled and the area had the most densely populated blocks in Brooklyn.
