The Brewster Building is a building at 27-01 Queens Plaza North in

Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a neighborhood within the New York City borough of Queens. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; Sunnyside to the east; and Newtown Creek, which separates Queens from Greenpoint, Brook ...

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Once an assembly plant for

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

automobiles, Brewster automobiles, and Brewster airplanes, in particular the

Brewster F2A Buffalo The Brewster F2A Buffalo is an American fighter aircraft which saw service early in World War II. Designed and built by the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation, it was one of the first U.S. monoplanes with an arrestor hook and other modificatio ...

fighter and the SB2A Buccaneer light bomber, it later became the corporate headquarters for

JetBlue Airways JetBlue Airways Corporation, stylized as jetBlue, is an American major airline headquartered in Long Island City, in Queens, New York City. Primarily a point-to-point carrier, JetBlue's network features six focus cities including its main hub a ...

Usage by Brewster

The building, designed by Stephenson & Wheeler, opened in 1911 to handle the assembly of the chassis for the Brewster cars that were being built since 1905 at 47th Street and Broadway in

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...

in nearby

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. The building was one of the first major developments at the foot of the

Queensboro Bridge The Queensboro Bridge, officially the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, is a cantilever bridge over the East River in New York City. Completed in 1909, it connects the Long Island City neighborhood in the borough of Queens with the Midtown Manhattan ...

, opened in 1909, which reduced car transport from Queens to Times Square to a matter of minutes. In 1915 it began building the Brewster Knight. In 1925, the company was bought by Rolls-Royce of America, which had been operating out of a plant in

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is the most populous city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, and its county seat. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ea ...

. In 1931, the Rolls-Royce Springfield operation ended. From 1931 to 1934,

Rolls-Royce Phantom II The Rolls-Royce Phantom II was the third and last of Rolls-Royce Limited, Rolls-Royce's 40/50 hp models, replacing the Rolls-Royce Phantom I, New Phantom in 1929. It used an improved version of the New Phantom engine in an all-new chassi ...

chassis were shipped directly to the Long Island City plant when Rolls-Royce terminated its United States assembly program. From 1934 to 1936, under J. S. Inskip, Brewster automobiles using Ford chassis were built at the plant. The Brewster operation ceased in 1936. The

Brewster Aeronautical Corporation The Brewster Aeronautical Corporation was an American defense contractor that was founded in 1932, with a focus on naval aircraft. Fraught with fraud, mismanagement and inefficient production, the United States Navy eventually stepped in to take ...

manufactured the

and a version of the

Vought F4U Corsair The Vought F4U Corsair is an American fighter aircraft that saw service primarily in World War II and the Korean War. Designed and initially manufactured by Vought, Chance Vought, the Corsair was soon in great demand; additional production con ...

known as the F3A-1 during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

at the plant. The multi-story layout of the building limited airplane production efficiency. The aircraft were flown from

Roosevelt Field Roosevelt Field is a former airport, located in the East Garden City section of Uniondale, on Long Island, New York, United States. Originally called the Hempstead Plains Aerodrome, or sometimes Hempstead Plains field or the Garden City Aero ...

in Mineola.

Disrepair and reuse

The building fell into disrepair following the war and its clock tower was dismantled in 1950. A series of garment manufacturers occupied the building until 1996. In 1996, Brause Realty extensively remodeled the building and an adjoining 12-story tower and it became an operational center for Metropolitan Life Insurance with 1,500 employees. In 2010, JetBlue announced it would combine employees at its existing large

Kew Gardens, Queens Kew Gardens is a neighborhood in the central area of the New York City borough of Queens. Kew Gardens is bounded to the north by the Union Turnpike and the Jackie Robinson Parkway, to the east by the Van Wyck Expressway and 131st Street, to ...

and small 70-person

Darien, Connecticut Darien ( ) is a coastal town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. With a population of 21,499 and a land area of just under , it is the smallest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Connecticut), Gold Coast. Situated on the Long Island ...

campuses into the building, bringing 1,000 employees to it. JetBlue is the only major airline headquartered in New York City. The new headquarters is from the previous one. JetBlue, looking for a new corporate headquarters, had also considered moving to

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

. As part of taking on the moniker of being the hometown airline of New York City, JetBlue announced it would be joint branding the "

I Love New York I Love New York (stylized ) is a slogan, a logo, and a song that are the basis of an advertising campaign developed by the marketing firm Wells, Rich, and Greene under the directorship of Mary Wells Lawrence used since 1977 to promote tourism ...

" logo. JetBlue stated in 2012 that it plans to construct a lighted sign stating "JetBlue" on top of the 8th floor, adjacent to the outdoor terrace.

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, New York City, Architecture 1911 establishments in New York City Industrial buildings completed in 1911 Commercial buildings in Queens, New York Airline company headquarters in the United States Long Island City JetBlue MetLife WeWork