By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Down the Gowanus is a modern folk song by Steve Suffet. The Gowanus Canal is a man-made industrial water way built and streightened in the 1860s from an existing creek. The Gowanus has played a valuable role in Brooklyn's...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
In the 1990’s New York’s waterways was less grandiose, than it had been in years prior, but it still had its gems here and there. One such gem, Leonard Thomas, affectionately known as the “Chicken Man'', worked a career that spanned several...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
A cheat sheet for the bell and jingle code hangs in the fidley of the MARY A. WHALEN. It can be seen in the related entry Bells are Direction, Jingles are Speed which lays out the system. The bell and jingle code was used by the captain...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
The Goawnus Canal Storm Surge Barrier Study was presented to the New York City Economic Development Corporation and the Mayor's Office of Recovery and Resiliency. The report looks at the feasability of future studies and actions the City and the...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Updates on the building and the efforts to save it or raze it: June 14, 2018, a fire occurred in historic S. W. Bowne warehouse. FDNY concluded that the fire was arson and "the investigation is still open” (as in "who did it"?) Demo Permit...
William Beard is regaled in description of the coming out debut of two of his granddaughters in 1914. The Misses Shults Make Their Debut. Miss Isabel Shults and Miss Bertha Shults, who were presented at a reception last week Thursday, given by their...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Gowanus Canal photographs, 1932-1937 by Percy Loomis Sperr. Top image: New York State Barge Canal Grain Elevator Lower image: Paramount Brick yard Larger scale image can be seen on the New York Public Library website.
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
An aerial view of Erie Basin taken in 1920 by Perry Loomis Sperr. In the crook of the breakwater that protects the basin's piers is Thos. A. Crane's Sons' dry dock. The white building at the center rear of the view is the New York State Barge Canal...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
The landscape of Red Hook has been dramatically changed by people at least twice in its history. Starting in a major way around 1830, marshland was filled in to make solid land, and the coast line was modified to better suit boats. Nearly...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
According to the The New York Press in 1899, the Atlantic Docks made the surrounding area of Columbia Heights less desirable for the well-to-do. They left for more "artistic" places, leaving in their wake lower rents for "a cheaper class of...
