By The Red Hook WaterStories team
The large Red Hook, Brooklyn estate of Jordan Coles was put up for sale on June 2nd, 1836, following his death. The map shows the Gowanus Creek, before it was turned into a canal; mills and mill ponds; scattered houses and a mansion, not aligned...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Tide mills were used in Red Hook to grind grain into flour. They were also used to grind ginger. Water from the twice daily high tides was captured in mill ponds. A gate could be opened, sending the water rushing down a channel and...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
2016 draft map created by Eymund Diegel, based on his research describing Red Hook streams, ponds, tide mills up to around 1850. The base map is the Bernard Ratzer's 1766 survey. Captions are derived from Stile's comprehensive...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
1844 Coastal Survey. Red Hook's watery past has a bearing on how this place floods in current times. This map shows the topography at the end of Red Hook's tide mill pond era, meaning that much of what is today called Red Hook is still water. Note...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Historian Henry Stiles writes in his 1884 history of Brooklyn: "The southern portion of the Hook was a high hill covered with locust, poplar, cedar, and sassafras trees. This hill was cut down in 1835 by Messers. Dikeman, Waring and Underhill for...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Coles Street opened in 1850. It was likely named after Jordan Coles, who, among his various enterprises, ran a one of Brooklyn's seven water powered mills in the early 1820s. Together the mills produced most of Brooklyn's flour, over 6,000 barrels...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
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...
