Welcome to 400+ years of Red Hook! Inclusion is a theme in this e-museum that memorializes forgotten, overlooked and erased histories. It’s a resource for locals, tourists, history buffs, urban-planners, educators, students, flaneurs. It tells NYC’s maritime story in microcosm. Explore:
- our waterfront past & present
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contemporary Red Hook retail, arts, non-profits, schools, recreation, transit
- flood prep & resiliency info
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Featured Item
Growing land, Squatter Sovereigns and Picking Profit: 1887
A fair portion of today’s Red Hook was once water. An 1887 article in the Brookyn Eagle marvels that Henry and neighboring streets have been extended nearly half a mile in ten years. Marshes with…Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sunday July 3 1887Transcription.
HENRY STREET’S CHANGES--A Walk at the Lower End Well Worth Taking.--The Growth of a Year and a Half – Squatter Sovereigns – Side Thoroughfares…
Hospital Ship Solace Placed In Commission, 1941
World War II had started but the United States had not yet entered the fight when it launched the hospital ship SOLACE in August 1941. The ship, formerly the liner IRIQUOIS, was converted to a…●
Text of Article: "Hospital Ship Solace Placed in Commission," Brooklyn Eagle, August 10, 1941
With a grim warning that the enemy in the past has fired on ships flying the Red Cross, the Navy's new…
PS GENERAL SLOCUM - Disaster and Memory
The GENERAL SLOCUM ended service as a sinking fireball June 15, 1904, killing over 1,000, most of them women and children. 1,300 were aboard.
That made the SLOCUM famous. Her fame was then forgotten…
Random Items
The Signal Success of Martha Coston, 1826-1904
“So little opportunity have women had hitherto for demonstrating their capability for business, that it can only be indicated by the success of some particular woman in some unusual and exceptional…
RMC Canvas and Rope
The staff of RMC Canvas and Rope, posing by their hand-made rope fender. This Red Hook company ended its long run serving the maritime industry in 2005.
Insurance maps of the Warehouses, &c. in Brooklyn, 1861
William Perris was a first in producing fire insurance maps for Brooklyn. The Great fires in 1835 and 1845 that destroyed large sections of the New York City made it clear to insurers the utility of…Double Page Plate No. 8; [Map bounded by Hamilton Ave., Bowne St., Imlay St., Commerce St., Ewen St., Ferris St.; Including Wolcott St., Sullivan St., King St., North Pier St., South Pier St.]Page…
Todd Shipyards
Todd Shipyards started life in Brooklyn, in 1869, as Handren and Robins. After Handren's death in 1892, it became the J. N. Robins Co. and then, after merging with the Erie Basin Dry Dock Company,…The Erie Basin yard was closed in 1986 and sold to Rodermond Industries, which sold to IKEA around 2005.
Click here for a curated tour of stories about and related to Todd.
Or see the list of…