695 Washington Street | apartment building

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4-story Neo-Classical residential building originally completed in 1911. Designed by Arthur M. Duncan as a 2-story factory. The national headquarters of the Fleischmann Yeast Co. was moved here in 1919. The structure received a 2- story addition in 1921 by architect C. Aubrey Jackson the manager of real estate department of the Fleischmann Co., with Louis L. Tieman. Prohibition was implemented in 1919, and the Prohibition Commission revoked the company’s permits for industrial alcohol in 1922. With the huge loss in profits from gin, the Fleischmann Co. creatively launched a vastly successful “Yeast for Health” advertising campaign that profitably carried the company through these years until gin production was resumed in 1933.

Fleischmann family members had begun losing interest in running the firm, and helped to effect a merger. In 1929, the Fleischmann Co. was chosen as the centerpiece of a consolidation of food manufacturers by J.P. Morgan & Co. The new holding company was named Standard Brands, Inc. This location became Standard Brands’s “Manhattan agency, New York division office, and order department.” Standard Brands retained this property until 1944.

The building was used by an imported of Italian foods until 1961; the next tenant was a strapping and packaging company. In 1978, the building was converted into apartments by architect Peter Franzese.

This building’s front facade is constructed of reinforced concrete, with paneled spandrels. Windows are set within metal frames, with pilaster mullions and transoms. It has a ground-floor concrete cornice, and a cornice at the roof set between concrete pilasters. The visible secondary side walls are constructed of brick (now painted) and have lot line windows. A large portion of the facade is covered by thick, climbing ivy.