After 91 years of business, Brooklyn’s Liddy’s Machine Shop, Inc. is no more. Specializing in motor rebuilding, crankshift grinding, align boring and cylinder reboring, Liddy’s was founded in 1929 by C.M. Liddy. Once located in LaVilla at 1061 West Forsyth Street, the machine shop moved to 825 Dora Street when the building was completed in 1954.

Now permanently closed, on August 26th, the 10,219 square foot Liddy’s warehouse was acquired by Dedalus Wine Shop, Market & Wine Bar for $1.1 million. According to The Urban Division of commercial real estate firm Colliers, who represented the buyer in the deal, Dedalus plans to retrofit the machine shop building into a new location.

Based in Burlington, VT, Dedalus was founded by Jason Zuliani in 2007 as a small backroom wine shop with a dozen or so selections. In addition, Dedalus was the first shop in Vermont and one of the first in the United States to sell natural wine. After years of gradual growth, Zuliani expanded Dedalus into a much-larger space in February 2017.

Now stocking hundreds of wines, today Dedalus is considered to be one of the best indie wine shops in the country. Other Dedalus trademarks include a world-class cheese, charcuterie and conserva selection, a whine club, free bi-weekly tastings and a wine bar serving food and drink, all under one roof.

The adaptive reuse of the Liddy’s Machine Shop is somewhat rare in the rapid redevelopment of the Brooklyn neighborhood in the 21st century. After a decade of demolition, the Liddy’s building is one of a handful east of Park Street that are a direct link to the disappearing built environment of the neighborhood’s past.

The recently acquired Liddy’s Machine Shop property is highlighted in red.

Article by Ennis Davis, AICP. Photographs by Mike Field.