1075 Webster Avenue
Frank Rooke
1914; annex: 1923

When the Sheffield Farms Milk Plant was completed in 1914, it was one of the most expensive and elaborate milk plants in the country, boasting one of the highest processing capacities in the dairy industry. Sheffield Farms, one of the largest and most innovative dairy companies of its time, hired Frank Rooke to design a series of four large-scale milk plants in The Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan (one of which survives as Columbia University’s Prentis Hall). Sheffield Farms was among the first to implement large-scale pasteurization, and pioneered the production of certified milk and introduced the world’s first paper-packaged milk container in 1930. The original building, designed in a modern French Renaissance style, was sold by the successor of Sheffield Farms in 1971 and demolished in 1991, leaving only the two-story ice and storage building standing. In homage to the site’s history, three glazed terra-cotta cow heads and milk bottles were salvaged from the plant and installed on a wall in the garden of the adjacent Webster House apartment building.