Description
Rockwood’s Quality Cocoa & Chocolate Products
Display Cabinet
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Ford Panel Van model for display purposes only.
DIMENSIONS:
26 1/2″ wide x 16 3/8″ deep x 51″ tall
Metal base with all original stenciling &
lettering
Refinished oak & glass display area with 2
locking doors
Adjustable glass shelf
New velvet fabric inside bottom of display area
This has been part of Doug’s private collection
for over 25 years.
About “Rockwood’s Quality Cocoa & Chocolate
Products”
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courtesy The New York Times,
Margaret Eby, June 5, 2009
Perhaps the most visible of
the confectioners of yesteryear was the Rockwood & Company chocolate factory. In
its prime, the company was the second-largest chocolate producer in the country,
ranking only below Hersheys. The complex on Washington Avenue (Brooklyn, NY)?
converted raw cocoa into treats like Rockwood bits and pecan feast bars, as well
as industrial and baking chocolate.
The original building, on the
southeast corner of the block, was constructed by the Van Glahn Brothers
wholesale grocers and leased by Rockwood & Co. in 1904. The company expanded
into the northern part of the block under the architectural direction of the
Parfitt Brothers, a prolific Brooklyn firm whose other work includes St.
Augustines church in Park Slope.
Famed Beaux Arts architect
Ernest Flagg, whose designs included the since-demolished Singer Building, also
contributed to the design of the chocolate factory though as Professor Dolkart
says, not too much.
Rockwoods workers came both
from Wallabout and working class areas further east, like Williamsburg and
Bushwick, while the factory owners likely came from neighborhoods to the south.
A significant percentage of
the owners of the factories were Brooklyn residents, Professor Dolkart said.
They lived in Clinton Hill, Park Slope or Crown Heights.
When Rockwood & Company went
out of business in the 1950s, the factory was bought by Sweets Corporation of
America and commissioned to make Tootsie Rolls. In 1967, the factory closed its
doors, a victim of the waning tide of industrialization in the borough.
For pricing & information email:
dougschmittantiques@verizon.net
or
phone:
(570) 698-6694
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