BUILDING HISTORY

Powers Park Lofts

Companies in this landmark building manufactured two of the most famous products of the region. Historians tell us that the southern section of the building, constructed in the early 1860s by D. Powers and Sons, housed the looms on which the heavy fabric backing for oilcloth was made. It is the only building to remain of the huge original complex, which extended from the Hudson River to Third Avenue.

Deborah Powers, the company’s president, was a remarkably competent and philanthropic businesswoman, who lived to be 105. True civic leaders, she and her sons established a local bank, a home for old ladies, Powers School, and the William Powers Memorial Park, dedicated to her late husband. Designed by Jacob Weidenmann, a prominent 19 th century landscape architect, this beautiful little park one-half block north of Powers Park Lofts attracted many visitors to the area and is slated for restoration. Deborah’s white house still faces the park on Second Street.

The C.W. Ferguson Collar Company purchased the property in the early 1900s and added the expansive four-story north wing with its five-foot wide windows. In 1953 William Lewis Sr. bought the property to house several family companies, including Ready Jell and Lewis Company Greeting Cards, and a variety of small apparel manufacturing tenants. The building was occupied until very recently, hence its good condition.