1856
Sugar comes to the East River
The Havemeyer family begins refining on this stretch of shoreline, making Williamsburg the industrial center of the Port of New York.
Sugar, a bridge, and eight blocks the city rezoned
A refining waterfront that industrialized early, kept its brick grid inland, and was opened to housing by a single 2005 rezoning. Scroll the timeline.
1875
The Williamsburgh Savings Bank
George B. Post’s Classical Revival banking hall opens on Broadway — coffered dome, gilded interior, and the largest stained-glass window in any bank in the city.
1887
Peter Luger opens on Broadway
Porterhouse under the approach to a bridge that has not been built yet. It is still there.
1903
The Williamsburg Bridge opens
Leffert L. Buck’s span crosses on 31 December 1903 and puts the neighborhood twenty minutes from Delancey Street.
1915
Cass Gilbert on the waterfront
The Austin, Nichols & Co. warehouse rises at 184 Kent — the most architecturally significant building on the industrial shore, landmarked ninety years later.
2004
The refinery closes
Domino stops refining after nearly a century and a half. The Filter, Pan and Finishing House is landmarked three years afterwards.
2005
The waterfront is unlocked
The Greenpoint–Williamsburg rezoning opens roughly 184 blocks to high-density mixed use — the single act the rest of this timeline follows from.
2018
Domino Park opens
Six acres along the river by James Corner Field Operations, built over the refinery’s own sugar pipes.
2023
The Refinery reopens
460,000 sf of office inside the preserved 1881–84 masonry shell, beneath a barrel-vaulted glass penthouse.
2024
One Domino Square
Selldorf’s twin towers of 55 and 39 stories open on Domino Park — the first residential delivery of the Two Trees master plan.
