Henry Lembeck (1826-1904): Henry Lembeck (1826-1904)

Henry Lembeck (1826-1904)
Hudson and Lembeck Buildings
Corner of Lembeck and Ocean Avenues
​Greenville

Henry Lembeck (1826-1904), one of the founders of Lembeck and Betz Eagle Brewing Company, constructed two buildings on the east side of Ocean Avenue at Lembeck Avenue: The Hudson Building at 168-176 Ocean Avenue and the Lembeck Building at 160-166 Ocean Avenue.

The Hudson Building

The Hudson Building was constructed in 1898 during the dominance of the Romanesque Revival style popularized by architect Henry Hobson Richardson. The three-story gray-green building originally housed the Hudson Real Estate Company, for which Lembeck was a director.

The former entrance of the northeast corner property at Ocean and Lembeck Avenues had a pediment over a doorway flanked by Corinthian columns, replaced by a window. The distinctive rounded corner section of the building is green with three-part bay windows on the second and third floors. The name "Hudson Building" is engraved above the second-story windows. The ground floor features rusticated masonry on the facades facing Ocean and Lembeck Avenues. Rectangular windows with vertical stone lintels line the second floor. Arched windows with engraved semi-circular lintels and decorative keystone designs surround the third floor.

From 1910, the Hudson Building was occupied by Greenville Banking and Trust Company, of which Lembeck had been one of the founders. The Hudson Building was renovated in 1970 and now has 22 apartment units.

In 1924, Lembeck's Greenville bank relocated to a new Classical Revival building by New York architect Alfred C. Bossum at the southwest corner of Ocean and Lembeck Avenues. It merged with the Trust Company of New Jersey in 1929 and is now a branch of the North Fork Bank. The façade on Ocean Avenue has a recessed opening flanked by prominent two-story fluted Ionic columns and topped with a pediment. Three-riser granite stairs lead to the front entrance with replacement contemporary glass doors. A cornice above the doorway has engraved brackets that serve as the base for a clock set in the classical revival style.

The Lembeck Building

The Lembeck Building, at the southeast corner of Ocean and Lembeck Avenues, is an imposing gray-green stone three-story structure. Designed in the Romanesque-Revival style like the Hudson Building, it has a prominent corner entrance with an arched round-headed stone doorway, flanked by squared Ionic columns topped by a cornice with a modillion. Rusticated masonry decorates the first-story street facades. On the second floor, a succession of windows is set in a semi-circular pattern carved in the façade with arched transoms. The windows are each flanked by side-rounded Ionic columns. Windows topped with vertical stone lintels surround the third floor, and a decorative green cornice outlines the property. Above the third-story corner window, the name "Lembeck Building" is engraved in the stone. The first floor is now commercially occupied, and the top floors have apartments.

Henry Lembeck's built a home at 46 Columbia Place (now Lembeck Avenue) and Old Bergen Road. It currently stands on the grounds of the health care facility Peace Care St. Ann's, formerly the Home for the Aged on Old Bergen Road.

"Biography of Henry B. Lembeck."  Copied from Memorial History of New York and The Hudson River Valley, Volume V 1896, 4pp.
"Death List of a Day, Henry Lembeck." New York Times 26 July 1904.
"Great Loss to Jersey City." New York Times 15 September 1895.
Muirhead, Edward G. ed. Jersey City of To-Day, Its History, People, Trades, Commerce, Institutions and Industries, New Jersey America. Jersey City, NJ: Walter G. Muirhead, 1910.