Critical public hearing set on homeless shelter proposal for Downtown Brooklyn landmark
Namm's was once one of the biggest department stores in U.S.
A hearing set for Thursday morning by the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services will examine, as one of many items on a long agenda, a plan to establish a homeless shelter at a landmarked Downtown Brooklyn building that once housed one of the area’s most famous stores.
The building, at 1 Hoyt St. (more formally, 1-7 Hoyt St. aka 450-458 Fulton St.) was the former A.I. Namm & Son Department Store, built in 1924-25. In 1923, The New York Times described Namm’s, which was then located at a nearby building on Fulton Street, as the “third largest cash department store in the United States.”
At the time, Namm’s main competition in the Fulton Street area was Abraham & Straus, now the Downtown Brooklyn Macy’s. According to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the motto of B.H. Namm, who was president of the store for several decades during the first half of the 20th century, was “Don’t sell America short — sell it shirts.”
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.