By The Red Hook WaterStories team
William Yorke was an artist who lived on a boat in the Erie Basin with his wife, son, and two dogs in 1882. After his boat was destroyed in a steamboat accident and Yorke was found living in a hut by the waterfront with his family, his story was...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
A Cruise in the Erie Basin , an article by Don C. Seitz, and published in Frank Leslie's magazines in 1892, relates the story of Red Hook's Erie Basin. It grew from a scene with “hardly a building to be seen south of Atlantic Street, and not...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
The discovery of germ theory at the second end of the 19th century, following the close of the industrial revolution, brought hygiene to the front of people’s minds. As a result, when they organized committees and groups to keep their communities...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
"Carolina Salguero was Associate Curator of the exhibit. Mary Habstritt, President of the Roebling Chapter of the Society of Industrial Archeology was the curator. Salguero was the mole for the Save the Graving Dock effort since she had unfettered...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Red Hook once had two graving docks and many floating dry docks. This wonderfully illustrated article from the January 13, 1883 edition of Scientific American explains how graving docks at what became Todd Shipyard work. The shipyard site is now...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Three photographs of Erie Basin by George Bradford Brainerd (1845-1887). Brainerd was a civil engineer who worked for the city of Brooklyn as Deputy Water Purveyor from 1869 to 1886. His book The Water Works of Brooklyn: A Historical and Descriptive...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Complete text of article The Brooklyn Daily Eagle , Sunday March 4, 1900. Beautiful Yachts Which Will Soon Awaken From Their Winter Sleep In The Erie Basin . Pleasure Craft, All Swathed in Canvass, Dormant in Gowanus Bay—Set Apart from the Humble...
The Red Hook Water Stories team was very gratified to learn that author Mark Morrin, used RedHook Waterstories as a source for his 2019 e-book Farewell and Adieu Old Boatmen of Red Hook, and even more grateful that he has allowed us to make...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
One August day in 1896, on a steamship just arrived from Lisbon and docked in Erie Basin, custom officials found stashed in the cabin of a stewardess, four boxes of Spanish thread lace, one box of lace and lace embroidery as well as children's...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
At 480 Van Brunt Street at Beard Street stands a block long red brick warehouse that was home from 2006 to 2020 to a Fairway Market on its ground floor and residential and commercial tenants on the upper floors. The supermarket became a Food Bazaar...
