Four similar cottages were built in the 1850s as homes for executives of Kattenhorn and Hopke's Hudson River Steam Sugar Refinery. Several sugar mills opened along the river after the arrival of the railroad in 1849 and for nearly 25 years dominated the local economy. The steam refinery burned on Christmas Eve in 1875, and arson was suspected, with some blaming the workers and others the owners. Many employees were German immigrants who moved to Brooklyn when several refineries relocated there.