Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters

Take your next trip with Atlas Obscura!

Our small-group adventures are inspired by our Atlas of the world's most fascinating places, the stories behind them, and the people who bring them to life.

Visit Adventures
Trips Highlight
Borneo orangutan
Malaysia • 12 days, 11 nights
Wild Borneo: Secrets of an Ancient Rainforest
from
Pastel de nata
Portugal • 8 days, 7 nights
Portugal: A Culinary Adventure from Porto to Lisbon
from
View all trips
Top Destinations
Latest Places
Most Popular Places Random Place Lists Itineraries
Add a Place
Download the App
Top Destinations
View All Destinations »

Countries

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan

Cities

  • Amsterdam
  • Barcelona
  • Beijing
  • Berlin
  • Boston
  • Budapest
  • Chicago
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico City
  • Montreal
  • Moscow
  • New Orleans
  • New York City
  • Paris
  • Philadelphia
  • Rome
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Stockholm
  • Tokyo
  • Toronto
  • Vienna
  • Washington, D.C.
Latest Places
View All Places »
The wall commemorating 11,908 Jewish victims of the Shoah from Frankfurt.
Börneplatz Memorial
Entrance to the munitions area of the lower part of the bunker
Simserhof
Carlos Calderón Yruegas calls the villa his personal playground.
Villa Tabaiba
Apples and pears, Spitalfields Market.
Brick Lane Roundels
Latest Places to Eat & Drink
View All Places to Eat »
The sign declares this the number-one gumbo shop in town.
Gumbo Hut Shioya
The pavlova comes crowned with jewel-like fruit.
Central Park Boathouse
The Village Tavern of Long Grove - exterior.
The Village Tavern
Hunter House Hamburgers
L’Escamoteur
Recent Stories
All Stories Video Podcast
Most Recent Stories
View All Stories »
Places like Forest Grove linger on the edge of wilderness and civilization.
Listening for Echoes of the Forest Grove Sound
2 minutes ago
Longwood House, where Napoleon Bonaparte spent his final years.
The Longwood House: Napoleon Bonaparte’s Beautiful Prison
about 17 hours ago
 Fenway Park at night
How Was Your First Trip With Your Significant Other?
2 days ago
Ivan the Terra Bus
The Bus, the Myth, the Legend: Ivan the Terra Bus
3 days ago

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All the United States New York State New York City Brooklyn Greenpoint Reformed Church and Mystery Tile

Greenpoint Reformed Church and Mystery Tile

Built as a home for the Union Porcelain magnate in 1867, now the Greenpoint Reformed Church and home to a ceramic mystery.

Brooklyn, New York

Added By
Kastoory
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
  jessica.dailey
  jessica.dailey
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fultonde...
  Hermit09 / Atlas Obscura User
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

Thomas Smith made his fortune running the Union Porcelain Company. He spent it — or some of it at least — on this house. He also left behind a mystery.

Born in Long Island in 1815, Thomas Smith's father died when he was six, and at sixteen, Smith moved to New York to work as an apprentice to a master builder. After the Civil War, having invested heavily in a small porcelain factory in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Smith took over the abandoned and dismantled company as a partial satisfaction of debt.

After about two years of experimenting with various types of porcelain, Smith put his "hard" porcelain on the market. Beginning with doorknobs, caster wheels, and insulators and moving onto fancier fare such as as Vases and Platters, today the Union Porcelain objects are quite valuable and some items now reside in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

All of this made Smith quite rich, and in a style befitting a wealthy man, he designed a house for himself at 136 Milton street in 1867. (Smith was also responsible for designing many of the other houses built on Milton.) 

Smith died in 1901, and the home briefly became the Greenpoint YMCA before the congregation of the Greenpoint Reformed Church purchased the property in 1944. But Smith had left a few hidden mysteries still to be discovered. 

Over the years, as the basement floor was worn down, doorknobs and broken ceramics began revealing themselves. Apparently, ever money conscious, Smith had used his company's ceramic scraps to mix in with the concrete.

Even more surprising was the tile found in 2008. A strange tile in the back wall of the parlor fireplace was accidentally stumbled upon by the director of the historic preservation program at Columbia University. Realizing it was strange and unique, a team of experts was assembled to examine it.

The tile is believed to be a portrait of Robert Fulton, designer of the "Nautilus," the first practical submarine (made on behalf of Napoleon Bonaparte, no less) and of Robert Livingston, Fulton’s business partner. The tile was likely made in the 1870s, but it remains unclear if Smith knew Fulton, whether he commissioned the tile, or, as with his basement, he just had it lying around.

Today the Greenpoint Reformed Church — in addition to its religious devotions and services — hosts meetings of community groups, offers the services of a soup kitchen to those in need, and has found itself utilized as a set piece in several films and television shows.

 

Related Tags

Sacred Spaces Eccentric Homes Homes

Community Contributors

Added By

kastoory

Edited By

tessofthedurbeyfields, Hermit09

  • tessofthedurbeyfields
  • Hermit09

Published

July 25, 2010

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Greenpoint Reformed Church and Mystery Tile
138 Milton St.
Brooklyn, New York, 11222
United States
40.729391, -73.954996
Get Directions

Nearby Places

St. Anthony

Brooklyn, New York

miles away

Sunshine Laundromat

Brooklyn, New York

miles away

Greenpoint Shul

Brooklyn, New York

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Brooklyn

Brooklyn

New York

Places 241
Stories 46

Nearby Places

St. Anthony

Brooklyn, New York

miles away

Sunshine Laundromat

Brooklyn, New York

miles away

Greenpoint Shul

Brooklyn, New York

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Brooklyn

Brooklyn

New York

Places 241
Stories 46

Related Places

  • Casa de Azucar in El Paso, Texas.

    El Paso, Texas

    Casa de Azucar

    The house's confection-like decorations are the result of one man's painstaking work over decades.

  • Where the Parsonage once was, quiet condos with No Trespassing signs now sit

    Pasadena, California

    The Parsonage

    The site of the house Jack Parsons made famous both in life and death.

  • Rome, Italy

    Porta Alchemica

    An alchemist's "magic door" stands in the middle of a Roman park.

  • Wieliczka Salt Mine

    Wieliczka, Poland

    Wieliczka Salt Mine

    An underground city of salt.

  • The baby drop-off.

    Barcelona, Spain

    Barcelona's Baby Drop-off

    Turntable anonymously received orphans, alms, and groceries.

  • Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

    Istana Nurul Iman

    1800 rooms of single-family residence in Brunei.

  • The Gotse Delchev temple, which is now an apartment

    Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria

    Gotse Delchev Temple

    The temple that withstood the Nazis.

  • Tower of Eben-Ezer

    Bassenge, Belgium

    Tower of Eben-Ezer

    A Belgian self-built tower inspired by the Bible and ancient civilizations.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.