The company name was at just the right height for passers-by — but not on foot.
From its construction, c. 1918, till the company decamped for Connecticut, in 1962, this building served as the headquarters of the M.H. Renken Dairy. (There's another, grimmer, warehouse-like Renken building on the north side of Myrtle Ave., to the right and out of frame of the photo, and possibly several surviving companion buildings abutting it on Classon Ave., to the left and back.) During that entire time the view shown above would have been obstructed by the Myrtle Ave. El, a mass-transit line that still exists in vestigial form deeper in Brooklyn. The portion of the line that passed the dairy went out of service in 1969, however, and the elevated tracks were removed not long after.
Today, the space on the corner operates as a café called Wally's Square Root. Just a couple of years old, Wally's is ringed by signs ("fountain" is one of many) that seem to have been retained from an unknown, vintage 1960s luncheonette; the nonworking jukebox brandishes an appropriately titled 45 in ready-to-play position. To the right of the headquarters entrance is Dope Jams, vinyl a specialty.
M.H. Renken Dairy building
584 Myrtle Ave. (at Classon Ave.), Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
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