1300 Flatbush Ave: The Oil-Burner Building
After seeing this 1940s tax photo of 1300 Flatbush Avenue, I will forever think of it as The Oil Burner Building. Especially because it led me down a weird research rabbit hole about Chrysler oil burners...
When the iconic Chrysler building was being built, Walter Chrysler—who I assume looked like Rich Uncle Pennybags from Monopoly—had an issue most New Yorkers still face today: getting central air conditioning. He didn’t want his namesake building to be doomed to having window units for 100 years like the Flatiron, so he decided to go into the AC business himself to make his central AC dream happen.
Soon Rich Uncle Chrysler had spun this new R&D into an “Airtemp” division and 500 retail outlets nationwide (to give you a comparison, that’s similar to the number of Trader Joe’s that we have today). It’s natural to understand why they also sold furnaces. The oil-burning furnace was a giant upgrade from the previous version of the household furnace, which required having to go into your basement and shovel coal every few hours! Even though they were invented in the 20s, because of the great depression, most working-class families like those in Flatbush didn’t get them until the early 40s.
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1940s tax photo of 1300 Flatbush Ave. If you zoom in on the sign on top of the building, it says Marr Oil Burner, which makes me think maybe Chrysler bought-out another furnace shop and didn’t bother to replace the sign.
Current view of 1300 Flatbush Ave, the most Flatirony-looking building on Flatbush Ave.
Detail of 1300 Flatbush Ave, which I call the Oil Burner Building in my head.
This 1937 ad from LIFE magazine shows Crysler’s furnace and air conditioning offerings.
Part of 1300 is a counselling center. In the 80s, the ground floor was a bar/restaurant. More recently, it was used as a campaign headquarters for Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign, but according to the NYC Department of Buildings, shortly before Hillary Clinton was named the presumptive nominee, a tenant registered a complaint, saying, “MY BUILDING IS PARTIALLY DEMOLISHED DUE TO SOME TYPE OF EXTREME RENOVATION. THERE ARE NO PERMITS AND IT IS SCARY.” I don’t think it’s been anything since, but you can rent it yourself for $7,000 a month. Probably don’t sell oil-burning furnaces though.