This warehouse was the roasting plant of the Eppens Smith Co. Coffee Plant. The company was first located on Wall Street among a variety of other merchants in the coffee and tea business. In fact, there was quite a population of dealers and roasters in the caffeine industry in the Financial District, filling their air with the aroma of roasted coffee.

Eppens Smith was founded as Pupeke & Reif in 1855. The company had roasting facilities which occupied two addresses on Warren Street, both of which were destroyed by an explosion in 1900. After years of litigation, the company again found success and was able to open locations around the country. Forty years later, Pupeke & Reif, now called Eppens Smith Co., purchased a building formerly occupied by the United Drug Syndicate on Borden Avenue in the industrial neighborhood of Hunter's Point, Queens. Eppens Smith roasted coffee here until the 1950s, when they were purchased by Chock Full 'O Nuts.