There are few things that remain unspoiled by the years but when you’re in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, looking south over the BQE and into Red Hook, you’re looking at infrastructure and industrial detail that hasn’t changed much in the past 50 years. My grandmother could have seen this exact same sight. In a city where few objects have permanence, that’s beautiful.

From: Asbestos Product Manufacturers Info Site:
“Founded by Arthur Kennedy in Brooklyn, NY in 1898, Kentile Floors was a popular manufacturer of floor tiles. The company’s plant, easily recognizable by the large purple neon sign that towered over its Brooklyn plant, claimed to be the home of “America’s largest manufacturer of super-resilient floor tile.”
Known for the bold patterns it produced on its vinyl tiles, Kentile and its floors became a hit nationwide. The company’s “Crystalite Vinyl” tiles were especially popular in the 1950s and 1960s.”