By The Red Hook WaterStories team
While Bay Ridge, Brooklyn was the center of the Scandinavian population in the 1930's through the 1960's, Norwegians moved out from their original settlement in New Amsterdam in the 1630's to Brooklyn, where they settled and prospered. Red Hook was...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
In the summer of 1929, Olaf the cat, mascot of the brand new South American freight and passenger ship, SUD AMERICANA, was swept overboard during a storm. Captain Bjor Boettger and his Norwegian crew immediately went into action. ...
Street address: Pier 44 foot Conover
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Victoria Hofmo, founder of the Scandinavian East Coast Museum, which contains thousands of items, also directs the annual Viking Fest, a celebration of Scandinavian culture with music and a replica of a Viking ship. "The waterfront is what...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
A fire destroyed the property of five families living in shanties by the water at Red Hook Point, June 23, 1873. "The locality in question is a low section of made ground lying between King, Columbia and Richard streets, and is built upon by...
A timeline of the Norwegian community in New York and Brooklyn has been wriiten by Lars Nilsen of the Norwegian Immigrants Association and can be found on his website:
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Ramberg Iron Works paid $650,000 to the receivers of the Atlantic Dock Company for eight and three quarter acres fronting the Buttermilk Channel at the foot of Coffey, Dykman, Sullivan and Wolcott Streets in 1918. The site was within the free...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Originally from Norway, Otto A. Hansen came to the United States as a young man. After serving in WWII, he opened a bar at 117 Columbia Street. The bar was very popular with sailors; Otto would often go down to the docks and give them comical...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
The Bethesda Mission was founded in 1899 by local members of the Lutheran Church of America. Their purpose was to provide a steadying religious influence for young people. In 1905, they built the building at 22 Woodhull Street, Brooklyn. It had room...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Three Brooklyn sailors of Norwegian descent planned to sail around the world in a modified wooden lifeboat in 1921. Captain Mimer Tonning, Otthar Petterson, and Helge Westerling, members of the Norwegian Masters and Mates Association, planned the...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Sketches of the shanties near Erie Basin, by artist Robert Cummings Wiseman, 1930s. Images are in the collection of the Museum of City of New York and can be seen by clicking on the links below: 46.136.7 46.136.8 46.136.9 46.136.10 46.136.11...
