The Business Of Beebee Island Par Super Market 233 Mill St., Eames Vacuum Brake and New York Air Brake

Long before the three-story building on Beebee Island would become home to Par Super Market, it was home to Eames Vaccum Brake, which became New York Air Brake. Constructed in 1890 as part of the Eames expansion, the 200-foot-long by 42-foot-wide building utilized nearly 400,000 bricks and was constructed by John Hardiman, who did the mason work, and Thomas Ward, who did the carpenter work. Hardiman would go on to build a good number of New York Air Brake buildings.  

A couple of years afterward, John C. Thompson, president of Eames Vacuum, would petition to have tracks laid from the R. W. & O. R. R. through Mill Street to the premises where more construction was underway. 

The growth of the New York Air Brake would be noted in a Watertown Daily Times article a decade later on November 15, 1902—

The New York Air Brake Company is today one of America’s most successful and flourishing corporations.  In less than a decade it has more than doubled itself and it has only one rival, the Westinghouse Air Brake company.  It (NYAB) was incorporated in New Jersey, in 1890, with a capital of $10,000,000, and it now supplies brakes to all the railroad companies in America, in Europe, Russian and Asia.  It supplies the Union Pacific, the Southern Pacific, the Northern Pacific, the New York Central, and over 50 other American Railroads.  It works under the patents of Albert P. Massey of Watertown, New York state, where the factories are.  

The first structures for this work were erected on Beebee Island, on the Black River, but it now runs over onto the mainland, the whole plant comprising over 260 acres and employing 1,200 men.  The capacity has been more than doubled, and it has become one of the most flourishing businesses houses in America.  

Within a short time the firm has erected a large shop and plant in Moscow, Russian, and it has important works in Belgium, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, and France.  

Around this time, the New York Air Brake began constructing its first building on a section of the old Poole Farmland near Pearl Street Road and across from the Pearl Street School.  The Foundry Building would be the first to open in 1903, and the Air Brake would begin moving operations to its “East” plant. However, operations would remain on BeeBee Island for some time and on Factory Street for a couple of more decades, as noted in the Barney’s Place article, which, in later years, was home to Mick’s Place.  

In the early 1930s, the building was known as the Industrial Y. M. C. A. building for nearly two years, replacing the Rail Road Y. M. C. A. on Arsenal Street at Watertown Junction. Still owned by the New York Air Brake in 1931, the building was proposed to become a community building and widen the street, but the plans never moved forward.  

In 1934, it would become home to Par Super Market.  The Watertown Daily Times reported on December 7th of that year—

Par Super Market opened its doors to the shopping public in the old Industrial Y. M. C. A. building, 233 Mill St., at 2 this afternoon.

The store, the largest of its kind in the north country, houses eight different departments and employs a sales force of between 35 and 40 people.

The building, owned by the New York Air Brake company and located on Beebee’s Island, was formerly occupied by the Industrial Y. M. C. A.  For nearly two years, however, the building has been vacant.  During the past six weeks the entire main floor of the building has been completely remodeled.  Nearly 150 men have been given employment during the modernization of the structure.

Dairy, meat, candy, bakery tobacco, fruit and vegetable, hardware and grocery departments are located in the building and require a floor space of 10,000 square feet.

Par Super Market would operate in several locations, but Mill Street was its largest and operated there until 1959.  The building was purchased in 1951 by the Lemor Company from The Island Land Corporation, headed by Mrs.(Isabel Lapier) Gordon L. Hodge.

The Lemon Company was formed by brothers Morris and Leon Bilfield, who also co-owned Standard Audio Parts.  The two would purchase four buildings on the west side of Mill Street including the Par Super Market building and eventually raze them to build the Standard Auto Parts building which has been located there since.