By The Red Hook WaterStories team
A description of the distribution of Italian population in Brooklyn, 1903 ...New York has more Italian residents than the entire population of either Venice or Florence and half as many as the entire population of Rome. In Brooklyn alone there are...
Richard Gambino, a retired professor, grew up in Red Hook in the 1950s. Interviewed by oral historian Shannon Geis in 2013, he recalls it as a close-knit Italian immigrant commumity. He talks of the customs and traditons of the waterfront...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Francesco Pietanza, an immigrant from Italy, became a longshoreman in Red Hook in 1948. His daughter Mary Ann remembers both his hard work and his passion for gardening.
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
" We have mostly men here - very few women. No unattached women permitted at the bar. That’s a simple way of preventing trouble." One of the best known watering holes in Red Hook was the Shaft Alley saloon. Fortune magazine, in a 1937 essay...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Photo of three mustachioed Italian dock workers at Pier 30 taken on November 6, 1918
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Defonte's Sandwich Shop. 379 Columbia Street Brooklyn, New York 11231 718-625-8052 Hours: Monday to Saturday 6 am to 4 pm Closed Sunday Don't be put off by a long line, their large and speedy staff cranks out sandwiches fast! The Red Hook...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Verona Street was originally Ewer Street. The name was changed sometime before 1875. Herman Sherman speculated that it was possibly renamed in deference to a large number of Italians in the area who came from Verona.