Our History

Our space is proudly set in the former

John C. Hieber Co. Building

 

It was built in 1893, and is a five-story, rectangular, flat-roofed, red brick structure, 60 feet by 100 feet, with a random ashlar stone foundation. It was built as a combined sales and warehouse facility. The building was owned by the Utica Children's Museum, which moved into the building in 1979. 

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The Hieber Building was one of numerous large industrial/commercial buildings erected in Utica during the city’s period of greatest prosperity. The wholesale dry goods merchant John C. Hieber was born and educated in Wurtemberg, (Germany.

Immigrating to America in 1852, Hieber established his first business in Utica in 1864. As John C. Hieber & Co., the firm passed through a series of partnerships, emerging in 1882 as the region’s leading wholesale dealer in foreign and domestic dry goods and floor coverings, as well as hosiery and underwear produced by Utica’s extensive knitting mills. As his company grew and prospered, John C. Hieber looked to expand his sales and warehouse facilities near the New York Central Railroad. Accordingly, he commissioned Utica architect Frederick H. Gouge (1845-1927) to design a new building.

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The John C. Hieber & Co. Building retains many of its interior features and finishes, including supporting columns, pressed metal ceilings, office areas and an ornate central oak staircase. The nominated property is a substantially intact, representative example of the multi-story commercial-industrial architecture characteristic of Utica’s late nineteenth-early twentieth century development near the New York Central Railroad.

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