No man ever, perhaps, got so much the best of old Beard as did Louis Heineman, the housemover of the Twelfth ward” (The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 19, 1891) When Louis Heineman died in 1904, he was reportedly 104 years old, and likely the oldest...

Hughes Marine Hughes Bros. Erie Basin Bargeport Billing themselves a “Clearinghouse for Marine Difficulties” and in operation since 1894, Hughes Brothers is Red Hook’s oldest marine firm. They beat by four years Vane Brothers, founded in...

Columbia Street, west side, north of Verona Street. At the left is seen the American Can Co. on Dwight Street, between Delevan and Verona Streets.

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

A view of  Bush Street, east from Columbia Street.   On the corner is the Erie Brass Foudry, which which specialized in the making of brass castings for use by local shipyards.  It was owned and operated by William Mulligan from the late...

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

Photo taken July 26, 1939 from Columbia Street ("long dock"as old-timers call it) of a family posing aboard their home: the canal barge G.W LETHBRIDGE. The G.W. LETHBRIDGE. was a canal boat that transported grain down the Erie Canal to Red Hook's...

In 1921, the Brooklyn Spar Company advertised in The Marine Journal that it sold wooden masts and posts for derricks and flag poles, which the company made at its waterfront facility at the foot of Columbia Street. In O.R. Pilat's 1929 article, John...

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...

"In a neighborhood where the Puerto Rican presence is all but completely forgotten, this paper tells the story of the last efforts of the pioneros of the community in trying to preserve their way of life against the rapid urban development that...