Welcome to 400+ years of Red Hook history! Here are many forgotten stories from our evocative neighborhood, and NYC’s maritime story in microcosm. Explore:
- A digital museum about our waterfront past and present
- Red Hook retail, arts, non-profits, schools, recreation
- Resiliency and flood prep info
It’s a resource for locals, tourists, history buffs, urban-planners, educators, investors, flaneurs. Explore via menus, the search window or the interactive map. On the map, click the colored, numbered dots to zoom in to multiple items in that location. Then click on a pin to explore that item. Anchor icons mean sites of major importance.
Click empty spot on map to activate it
Featured Item
New York Harbor Observing and Prediction System (NYHOPS) Red Hook Recording Station
Wondering about Red Hook water conditions like currents, tide height, salinity? And how those relate to storms?Red Hook is home to a high-tech water monitoring device overseen by the Davidson…
Oral History: Sunny Balzano: Beloved barkeep and community figure. 2016
Sunny Balzano was the beloved owner of a legendary bar, some 90 years old, which became known as Sunny’s. Born in 1935, Sunny grew up in Red Hook where his father run the family bar at the foot of…
"Why, this is the Erie Basin!" she murmured.
Literary Reference 1908 detective novel with a setting in Erie Basin“Alice gazed about and presently recognized her surroundings. "Why, this is the Erie Basin!" she murmured. "How in the world did I ever come here?" Now, the Erie Basin has nothing whatever to do…
Random Items
Oral History: Sunny Balzano: Beloved barkeep and community figure. 2016
Sunny Balzano was the beloved owner of a legendary bar, some 90 years old, which became known as Sunny’s. Born in 1935, Sunny grew up in Red Hook where his father run the family bar at the foot of…
Growing land, Squatter Sovereigns and Picking Profit: 1887
A fair portion of today’s Red Hook was once water. An 1887 article in the Brook 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…
Title Fight: Louis Heineman vs. William Beard
"No man ever, perhaps, got so much the best of old Beard as did Louis Heineman, the housemover of the Twelfth ward.”
(The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 19, 1891)
When Louis Heineman died in 1904, he…
Colonies of Cozy Canal Boats Cluster for Winter In Quiet, Land-Locked Havens of Brooklyn Basins, 1911
This article from The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sunday, March 12, 1911, recounts the winter-time lives of Erie Canal barge families who winter in Erie Basin.
Colonies of Cozy Canal Boats Cluster for Winter
City of Inland Navigators Prepares for Annual Exodus.
COMMUNITY BOASTS OF UNIQUE FEATURES
Children Enjoy Sports on Docks After School Hours.
With the…