<P> Coordinates: 40 ° 42 ′ 52" N 73 ° 58 ′ 03" W ﻿ / ﻿ 40.714468 ° N 73.967504 ° W ﻿ / 40.714468; - 73.967504 </P> <P> The Domino Sugar Refinery is a former refinery in the neighborhood of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York City . It was the original refinery of the American Sugar Refining Company, which produced Domino brand sugar . The current complex dates from 1882, when it was the largest sugar refinery in the world . Refining operations stopped in 2004, and as of 2017 the property is under redevelopment as office space, residential towers, and parkland . Several of the buildings in the complex were given landmark status in 2007 . </P> <P> The original refinery was built in 1856, and by 1870 it processed more than half of the sugar used in the United States . The Havemeyer family established their first sugar refinery on Vandam Street in Manhattan at the turn of the nineteenth century . Frederick C. Havemeyer Jr. (1807 - 1891) expanded the business in 1857 after he established the longstanding South 3rd Street factory on the Williamsburg waterfront . His son, Henry Havemeyer (1847 - 1907), named the company Domino's Sugar in the early 1900s . Ships delivered sugar cane from across the world to the Domino Sugar Plant in Brooklyn, which was initially called the American Sugar Refinery Company . Several other factories followed, which created the greatest center of sugar refining in the world at that point in time . By 1870, more than half of the sugar consumed in the entire country was refined there . The largest of all plants is that founded in 1858 by Frederick C. Havemeyer, and now famous as the Havemeyers & Elde Refinery . The business was so successful that in May 1896, American Sugar became one of the original twelve companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average . A fire in 1882 caused the plant to be completely rebuilt in brick and stone, at least 10 stories high . Those buildings remain, albeit with some alterations made over the years . </P> <P> In 1917, while producing sugar for the Allies, an explosion destroyed part of the plant, killing several workers . A crowd of more than 15,000 people gathered to watch the plant burn . There was serious concern that the explosion was the work of German agents . </P>

Abandoned domino sugar factory in darkness brooklyn new york