Verona Street
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.
Defonte's Sandwich Shop
Don't be put off by a long line, their large and speedy staff cranks out sandwiches fast! This long-time family business slings huge portions to make great Italian hero sandwiches and has its own Red Hook WaterStories. Defonte's Sandwich...
Cargo departures from Atlantic Basin, 1873
Wheat shipments from Atlantic Docks for Rotterdam, Cork, Dublin, Amsterdam, Queenstown, Naples, Belfast, Bangor. Petroleum shipments from Atlantic Docks for Marseilles, Rostock, Stettin, Danzig, Trieste, Antwerp. [Only Red Hooks Docks listed, for...
Luis Marrero, Puerto Rican, talks about his WaterStories, 1974
Luis Marrero talks about his experience working on ships in Brooklyn and some of the racial tensions with Italians. His job on the boat . “A couple of friends and I were hired to paint ships because there wasn’t any money and a person had to...
Magda Acosta, Puerto Rican, talks about her Red Hook WaterStories, 1974
Excerpt of a 1974 conversation between Magda Acosta and interviewer Jamie Barreto: And do you remember the name of the boat? “Yes, the San Juan.” Where did it dock? “ I don’t remember the muelle [dock] I know it was over there by Conover and...
Brooklyn Waterfront: Berths or Boondoggle?
The 1970s were a tough economic time for the Brooklyn waterfront. Containerization of ship cargo had reduced the number of jobs, and many of those jobs had moved to facilities in New Jersey. The City and the Port Authority had a plan to build a new...
Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and how it has gone through Red Hook
Instead of building the Brooklyn Queens Expressway down Van Burnt Street, Robert Moses decided to build the highway through Hicks Street thus bisecting the Red Hook neighborhood while connecting the Brooklyn Bridge with the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel....
Shopping for Dinner in Italian Red Hook, 1937
A shopping tour in Italian Red Hook included all types of food: snails, fresh vegetables, rabbit, squab, octopus, cheese, olive oil, beans, and garlic. Throughout the 1900s , Red Hook had a very large Italian population, many of whom earned their...
Italian Laborers at Pier 30, 1918
Photo of three mustachioed Italian dock workers reported to be taken at Pier 30, Red Hook, Brooklyn on November 6, 1918. (photographer unknow to us)
Shaft Alley Saloon
" 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...