1950Brooklyn / New York CityCivic / Infrastructure

Owls Head Wastewater Treatment Plant

Joseph's 1950 sewage-plant job was part of the original construction of the Owls Head facility that still treats Brooklyn's wastewater today.

Aerial view of the Owls Head Wastewater Treatment Plant today. Not a construction-period photograph.

Undated · Photo: NYC Water (NYC DEP) · Reuse terms not verified. · Source

01The story

Why this project matters

Project identity: Verified
Kelly connection: Family source
Masonry scope: Probable

Rita’s list

Rita Bartscherer’s handwritten entry: Owlshead Sewage Plant — 1950

Transcription: Owlshead Sewage Plant — 1950

Recorded by Rita Bartscherer · Bartscherer family record

Entry

KM-009

Sheet

1 of two

As written

“Owlshead Sewage Plant — 1950”

NYC DEP says Owls Head was completed in 1952; Joseph's list places Kelly on the job in 1950.

Why it matters

Owls Head has operated since 1952, turning wastewater into clean harbor discharge through processes that mimic wetlands, rivers and lakes. On a typical day this largely unseen eight-block facility treats 120 million gallons for almost 800,000 Brooklyn residents.

02What Kelly did

What Kelly did here

Kelly connection

Family source

Scope confidence

Probable

Likely: most likely heavy-duty CMU/concrete-block enclosure and equipment-room walls, interior partitions, shafts and masonry backup; specialized refractory/stone work should not be assumed without specifications.

This scope is recorded as probable, not documented. It is a disciplined reading of the building and the trade practice of the period, not a contract-level record of Kelly’s work.

03Who built it

The construction team

The construction team for this job has not yet been established.

04What happened

What happened to it

Still operating / repeatedly upgraded

What happened next

NYC Water's official Flickr account has an excellent exact aerial/current view of Owl's Head Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility, photographed March 5, 2025, but the image is explicitly marked All Rights Reserved. Keep it as a reference/permission lead only. This is also a strong candidate for the fallback visual strategy: if a rights-clear photograph remains elusive, project-specific DEP plans, plant diagrams or historical engineering drawings could be preferable to an unrelated generic image. NYC DEP reported in 2011 that Owls Head was designed to treat 100 million gallons of wastewater per day. A later odor-control program added carbon filtration and a residuals-handling building, alongside covers, enclosed waste-container storage, vent rehabilitation and a new digester flare. These are later operational upgrades, not part of Kelly's 1950 construction package.

What happens next

Owls Head remains active; Brooklyn Community Board 10 continues to press for capital modernization projects. A 2011 DEP release documented completion of a new odor-control/residuals-handling building and related odor-mitigation upgrades at the operating plant.

On the map

6700 Shore Road, Brooklyn, NY 11220

Maps / Street View →View on the archive map →

Still operating / repeatedly upgraded

This record

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