All day and into the night Captain Benn made his rounds of Brooklyn's piers supplying newly arrived vessels with something that he said could keep sailors sane and captains ethical: reading material. Benn had been spreading words for 11 years by...

The Seaman's Branch of the YMCA, originally established as the Scandinavian Seamen's Mission, hosted 263 unsettled sailors, deckhands, and other maritime men from sixteen nations for Christmas dinner near the piers of Erie Basin in 1938. According...

617 refugees fleeing German-occupied European countries arrived at the foot of Columbia Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn in 1941. Crammed aboard the VILLA MADRID, a Spanish liner with accommodation for only 225, they complained about the conditions and...

The Spanish Freighter NAVEMAR left from Seville. Spain, with 1,120 passengers, in 1941. Most were Jewish refugees fleeing genocide in German-occupied countries. The conditions on the NAVEMAR, a ship designed with only 28 accommodations, were...

189-191 Columbia Street, east side, between Degraw and Saokett Streets, showing St. Peter Claver's Apostleship of the Sea for Seamen, at No. 189, an independent mission. August 10, 1933. P. L. Sperr.

Street address: Columbia Street & Degraw Street, Brooklyn, NY

President Street, at the S.W. corner of Van Brunt Street, showing the former Norwegian Methodist Episcopal Church. June 6, 1931. P. L. Sperr.

Street address: President Street & Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn, NY

Clinton Street, at the N.W. corner of First Place, showing the Westminster Presbyterian Church organised on January 31, 1856. It was opened for services in a frame structure on this site in 1856. In 1867 this building was erected. In 1929 it had...

Street address: Clinton Street & 1st Place, Brooklyn, NY

Visitation Place, north side, between Van Brunt and Richards Streets, showing Parochial School of the R.C. Church of the Visitation. June 25, 1931. P. L. Sperr.

Street address: Visitation Pl. & Van Brunt St., Brooklyn, NY

608-642 Henry Street, west side, between Coles and Rapelyea Streets. A view of the Norwegian Lutheran Church, and to the right P.S. No. 142. No. 606, partly visible at the extreme right, is north of Rapelyea Street. About 1928. Eugene L. Armbruster...

Street address: Henry Street & Coles Street, Brooklyn, NY

Two views of the (R.C.) Church of the Visitation. T he parish of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was founded in 1854 under the leadership of  Bishop John Loughlin.  According to the parish's website their first church, built in...

Street address: Richards Street & Visitation Place, Brooklyn, NY