Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Bush League

For some reason, I have run across a number of references to Topps Bush Terminal Plant (and presumably warehouse) this week. Before the move to Duryea, this sprawling industrial facility in Brooklyn hosted a number of metropolitan area business concerns, including Topps. I am fairly certain Topps moved into their longtime Brooklyn home soon after incorporating in 1947. They retained offices there even after moving the printing operation to Duryea in 1965 until they moved into One Whitehall Street in downtown Manhattan in 1994.


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In the current issue of the Wrapper (#239), there is an interesting vignette about an A&P shipping and receiving superintendent who also worked in Bush Terminal and became friends with the trash haulers that used to service the facility. Said hauler used to give the A&P man uncut sheets to take home to his kids. I wonder how many uncut sheets left the Topps plant during the 18 or so years they printed cards in Brooklyn?

This follows on the heels of a story concerning a little old lady who worked in Topps Duryea plant and ended up with a treasure trove of 1968 Topps Baseball Plaks, one of the rarest test sets they ever made. Crazy!



EDIT 11/26: Jeff Shepherd left some valuable comments and here is some better detail on Bush Terminal

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been down there Dave - only 10-15 minutes from my place in Brooklyn - massive warehouses entire avenue blocks in length. The earliest location I have for Topps is 60 Broadway in Bklyn, the Gretsch Building right off the Williamsburg Bridge...now luxury condos. Topps then made the jump to Bush Terminal, 37th St., sometime in the 1940's. Around '57 or so they inched one block northish to 36th.

The door was open one Saturday so I gave myself the grand tour...no hidden storage room of unopened wax and test issues, but all very original inside - concrete, bad windows, florescent lighting.

toppcat said...

Jeff:

They must have moved in after WW2 as Bush Terminal was involved in production for the war effort from the limited Googling I have done.

I have been by there on the Gowanus a few times but never stopped in!