A Meeting With Conrad Milster

I recently spent a day exploring Brooklyn with two longtime friends, Leslie and Greg.  I had desperately wanted to revisit and introduce to others both the Wilburg Cafe and Salerno Service Station, which I recently featured. The cafe offered a great brunch menu, and Salerno Service was one of the most remarkable businesses I have been to in New York City. I now had two victims willing to retrace my steps. On our ride towards Williamsburg, we approached Pratt Institute. Leslie, a regular reader of this blog and subject of the story White By Design, offered a guided tour of some special spots within a few of the buildings. She had spent time as a student doing graduate work at Pratt. Visiting the school at this time of year turned out to be a great suggestion. It was a hot summer day and the campus was quiet with virtually no security, and so, our tour of the interior of some of the university’s buildings went unfettered.

I have been to Pratt a number of times for the annual juggling festival, and my experience there was limited to the exterior grounds with their sculptures and the ARC Sports Complex. On this outing, I toured the campus, a number of buildings, and the library with its magnificent stairwell. But, in the East Building (bottom photo), there was a treasure known to most students but only to a handful of outsiders – the engine room. I had been told that the room was noteworthy, however, I was quite taken upon actually entering.

The place exuded old world charm and history. A gallery surrounded the dark-red reciprocating steam engines. The power plant is one of the most historic in the region and has been designated as a National Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The three generators, which burned number 6 oil and produced 120 volts of direct current, were installed in 1900. They were some of the last operating in the United States. The plant ceased generating power in 1977, remaining for standby emergency power until very recently. It is now fully retired.

At one end of the room, a lit office behind a windowed door beckoned. As I approached, I saw hand lettering on the glass which read: Chief Engineer C. Milster. It was the perfect photo op – an older man sat in direct view framed by the lettering. His demeanor certainly spoke engineer, but given the age of the facility and the door’s typography, it seemed rather unlikely that this man was the very same C. Milster. As I stood outside the office for a moment contemplating, the man waved for me to enter. I went in.

Conversation ensued, and I quickly learned that my gracious host was, in fact, Conrad Milster, now 76, who has run the facility since 1958. Conrad now maintains the school’s mechanical systems. As we chatted, it became abundantly clear that Conrad was quite passionate about the engine room and answered any and all questions.

I felt quite privileged to meet him – Conrad is more than an employee. He is a legend and integral part of the fabric of this wonderful antique environment. But I also had noticed that other things were afoot, and I was to learn, as you will in Part 2 of this story, about the curious nature of inhabitants of numerous buildings of Pratt and The Engine Room…