{"id":3108,"date":"2024-05-28T15:48:42","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T19:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brooklyn-name.com\/?p=3108"},"modified":"2024-05-28T15:48:45","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T19:48:45","slug":"the-history-of-the-brooklyn-wallpaper-factory-built-by-irish-immigrant-robert-graves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brooklyn-name.com\/en\/eternal-3108-the-history-of-the-brooklyn-wallpaper-factory-built-by-irish-immigrant-robert-graves","title":{"rendered":"The history of the Brooklyn wallpaper factory built by Irish immigrant Robert Graves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you’ve ever restored an old house in Brooklyn and come across 19th or early 20th century wallpaper, there’s a good chance it was made by the Robert Graves Company. From 1843 to 1929, this company produced some of the best wall coverings. This was facilitated by the fact that the one-of-a-kind orders and limited editions of wallpapers for interior decorators were created here. They also used modest paper for mass production for middle-class houses. Read more about the wallpaper factory and its history on brooklyn-name<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irish emigrant<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Robert Graves was born in Ireland. Unlike many other Irish immigrants, he did not arrive on American shores empty-handed. His father, Sir William Graves, was a famous artist. Robert came to America as a successful wallpaper manufacturer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1840s, wallpaper, or as they were called tapestries, was fashionable. Improvements in block printing, pigments and paper technologies have made wallpaper the best choice for home decoration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Robert Graves Company occupied a large five-story building and showroom in Manhattan’s Madison Square neighborhood on East 35th Street. In the early 1860s, Graves moved his factory to Brooklyn. He established the business at the corner of Fulton Street and Carlton Avenue. By 1870, a machine for printing wallpaper was invented. With this method of mass production, Graves needed more space. He hired an experienced Brooklyn architect, William B. Ditmars, to enlarge his factory and build another nearby. Ditmars rebuilt the factory on Carlton Avenue, raising it to five stories and attached it to a new five-story building that faced Adelphi Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also designed a seven-story factory building and showroom that faced Fulton Street, between Carlton Avenue and Adelphi Street. This building had a mansard roof and a central tower. The rear side faced the inner courtyard, which connected all three parts of the complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wallpaper boom<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The ground floor on Fulton Street had a high-ceilinged space large enough to display the company’s entire wallpaper line, as well as an emerging collection of draperies and accessories. The rest of the building was occupied by offices and factory premises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1882, advances in printing were made by combining metallic pigments with potato starch glue. This created rich vibrant shades<\/a> of gold and copper that were used to make the products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wallpaper reached the peak of popularity at that time. There was a special paper for the dado, frieze, border and patterns on the ceiling and only slightly less ornamented paper for the main part of the walls and ceiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Robert Graves Company, they worked non-stop to create a variety of patterns and designs that were requested by customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this made Robert Graves extremely rich. He lived with his wife and children in a rather big Italianate house between Vanderbilt and Clinton Avenues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Death of wife<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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He purchased a large part of land on Clinton Avenue, the main street of the neighborhood and asked the architect William Mandel to design the best house in Vinegar Hill. It was to be a huge mansion with a large room to house the art collection. However, on December 21, 1885, Robert Graves’ beloved wife, Cesarine Amelia Graves, died after a long and painful illness. He was devastated. Later, the house was completed but he never moved there. The house was empty. Robert Graves died less than a year later, in 1886. The company, which was still growing, was headed by his eldest son, Robert Graves Jr.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’ve ever restored an old house in Brooklyn and come across 19th or early 20th century wallpaper, there’s a good chance it was made by the Robert Graves Company. From 1843 to 1929, this company produced some of the best wall coverings. This was facilitated by the fact that the one-of-a-kind orders and limited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":310,"featured_media":2164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[334],"tags":[1675,1677,1678,1680,1683,1674,1679,1676,1681,1682],"motype":[325],"moformat":[18],"moimportance":[30,33],"class_list":{"0":"post-3108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-engineering-solutions","8":"tag-at-the-robert-graves-company","9":"tag-he-lived-with-his-wife-and-children-in-a-rather-big-italianate-house-between-vanderbilt-and-clinton-avenues","10":"tag-if-youve-ever-restored-an-old-house-in-brooklyn-and-come-across-19th-or-early-20th-century-wallpaper","11":"tag-irish-emigrant","12":"tag-raising-it-to-five-stories-and-attached-it-to-a-new-five-story-building-that-faced-adelphi-street","13":"tag-the-history-of-the-brooklyn-wallpaper-factory-built-by-irish-immigrant-robert-graves","14":"tag-theres-a-good-chance-it-was-made-by-the-robert-graves-company","15":"tag-they-worked-non-stop-to-create-a-variety-of-patterns-and-designs-that-were-requested-by-customers","16":"tag-to-enlarge-his-factory-and-build-another-nearby-ditmars-rebuilt-the-factory-on-carlton-avenue","17":"tag-william-b-ditmars","18":"motype-eternal","19":"moformat-vlasna","20":"moimportance-golovna-novyna","21":"moimportance-retranslyacziya-v-agregatory"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn-name.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn-name.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn-name.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn-name.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/310"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn-name.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn-name.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3109,"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn-name.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3108\/revisions\/3109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn-name.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn-name.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn-name.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn-name.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3108"},{"taxonomy":"motype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn-name.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/motype?post=3108"},{"taxonomy":"moformat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn-name.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/moformat?post=3108"},{"taxonomy":"moimportance","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooklyn-name.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/moimportance?post=3108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}