Hundreds of canal boats traveled down the Erie Canal bringing grain and other produce to Red Hook's Erie Basin during the early years of the 1900s. Each canal boat was both storage and a proper home for not just the skipper but a family. ...
Ice Cream: A late 19th century Red Hook waterstory
From the mid-1800s, lots of kinds of cargo were carried by canal boats from the U.S. inland to Red Hook to be shipped out around the world or to be used in local manufacturing. Grain was one of the largest imports, but some canal boats regularly...
Public School 30, 1868, 1930s
Red Hook's Public School 30 was built in 1868. P.S. 30 was located on the east side of Conover Street between Wolcott and Sullivan Streets. By 1930 a modern addition was built just to the east of the original building. P.S. 30 was in bad...
Winter storm batters, buries and freezes ships and shore, February 1895
Huge waves crashing down on the deck as hail, steamers burning through their coal just to stay in place against the wind, ships being thrashed by the storm and everything, and everyone, frozen and encrusted in ice. These are the stories that the...
A Cruise in the Erie Basin, by Don C. Seitz, 1892
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...
Of Ships and Social Life: Wintering Over in Erie Basin, 1900
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...
475 Canal Boats Wintering over in Atlantic Basin - 1851
The Atlantic Basin was the home to hundreds of Erie Canal boats during the winter months. Families, including children, lived on the the boats, tending their floating homes, until the ice melted and they could begin shipping produce again. The...
Canal Boat: Assault! 1859
Charles Debois was charged, in 1859, with attacking Mary Ann Baker while she was sleeping in her winter home, a canal boat docked in Atlantic Basin. The greater charge of rape was dropped. Complete text of article: New York NY Evening Express...
Atlantic Dock Brooklyn: Important improvement at Brooklyn, 1848.
The construction of the Atlantic Dock in Red Hook, Brooklyn was substantially completed by the beginning of 1848. The N.Y. Courier and Enquirer, reported that they have over three thousand feet of docking space and "have constructed one of the...
Living in a Box; Three Women Find It Decidedly Enjoyable. 1891
Living on a canal boat traveling down the Erie Canal, to the Hudson River, to Red Hook, Brooklyn's Erie Basin was a job and a way of life for some people, but for three women from Brooklyn, in the summer of 1891, it was a great restful vacation. The...