Van Brunt Street
The Van Brunt family was a well-established early Dutch family who settled in New Utrecht. This street may be named for Rutgert Van Brunt who was a member of the NYS Assembly from Kings County from 1783-1784.
Van Cortlandt's Mill - Van Dyke's Mill, pre-1689
Sometime before 1689, Stephanus Van Cortlandt (d. 1700) erected a water-powered mill on his property, roughly at the corner of present day Dikeman and Van Brunt Streets. "The mill-pond, which was formed by damming off the creeks and natural ponds in...
Seabring Mill later known as Luquer Mills
The landscape of Red Hook has been dramatically changed by people at least twice in its history. Starting in a major way around 1830, marshland was filled in to make solid land, and the coast line was modified to better suit boats. Nearly...
The Remsen Mansion
Joris Remsen, the second son of Rem Jansen, was the ancestor of the Remsen family in the US. He built a mansion near the brow of the Heights, which was used for hospital purposes by the British during their occupation of the town in the Revolution....
Dutch tobacco plantations
The best tobacco shipped from the American colonies to Europe was grown on the Dutch tobacco plantations around the Wallabout, what is today known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The Yard is also known to have been the site of the last public sale of...
The First Reformed Dutch Church
An account of the establishment of a mission chapel in Red Hook on Nov 8, 1867 by the general synod of The First Reformed Dutch Church in Brooklyn Heights.
Conover Street
Conover Street was most likely named after John Conover who in 1757 owned a large property bordering on a mill pond, which was roughly defined by today's Court, Summit and Hamilton Streets. An article in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle , February 26, 1910...
Merechkatvikingh village
PortSide NewYork acknowledges that we are are land and waterways that are the homeland of the Lenape, a place they call "Lenapehoking." The Lenape were displaced by European settlers and forced to move as a group multiple times to several US...
“Blacks on the New York Waterfront During the American Revolution”
Blacks were one of the first groups to arrive in Brooklyn during the Dutch colonial period, usually as enslaved people, though there were also freemen. To provide an overview of some early Black history, PortSide commissioned this article by Charles...
Steamers Loading Exports in the Atlantic Basin : Post Card ca. 1900
"Steamers Loading Exports in the Atlantic Basin" One of a large series of picture postcards published by the Brooklyn Eagle in the early 1900s. In addition to steamers, numerous barges - both square and Dutch style of rounded ones - also fill...