By The Red Hook WaterStories team
In the 1800s oil for candles and light was big business. In 1855 both the Atlantic Oil Company and the New York Oil Company had their works in Red Hook Point taking advantage of the easy access to the water. Atlantic Oil Company. Incorporated May...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Advertisement: "Composite Oil Works. Atlantic Docks Brooklyn. Gwynne & Co. proprietors. Composite oils for lubricating, burning, wool dressing, color grinding, painting, &c. Also rosin oil for rope makers..."
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
An advertisement titled "Era Works, Atlantic Docks, Brooklyn." promoting the "Manufactury of Gwynne’s pumping engine and Gwynne’s Patent reaction pump Particularly adapted for the use of steamers, vessels… dry docks and fire engines."
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Lumber was one of the major commodities shipped to the Atlantic Docks. In the 1860s Adam R. W. and Co. operated from the Docks and sold long lumber for shipping, building and other businesses, according to the 1867 New York State Business Directory...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Photo of Barber Lines & Co at Pier 36, Atlantic Basin. Herbert and James Barber started their company in 1886, incorporating as Barber & Company in 1902. The company had several subsidiaries and off-shoots including the Barber Steamship...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
An aerial view of the Atlantic Basin, looking north-northeast, taken on July 24, 1951. Atlantic Basin had been roughly this shape and configuation for a little over 100 years when this photo was taken. There was a lot more parking lot...
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...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
In November of 1872, a tall wooden grain elevator and several warehouse buildings of the Atlantic Docks burnt to the ground in a great fire which was seen for miles. Six hundred thousand bushels of wheat, oats and barley burned. New York Herald,...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
In 1881, the Excelsior Stores grain warehouse and grain elevator in Atlantic Basin burned in a massive fire. Here is an article from The New York Herald , Monday, June 13, 1881, describing the conflagration: THE EXCELSIOR STORES BURNED. -- A...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
September 1873. Sailors between stints on ships frequently stayed in boarding houses near the waterfront. The writer of an 1873 article in the Brooklyn Eagle describes how the manager of certain boarding houses, for a fee, provisioned sailors for...
