Fight to Save Todd Graving Dock, 2006

Carolina Salguero was Associate Curator of the exhibit. Mary Habstritt, President of the Roebling Chapter of the Society of Industrial Archeology (now heading the LILAC Preservation Project) was the curator.

Salguero was the mole for the Save the Graving Dock effort since she had unfettered access to the property, the invitation to come in by land or water, day or night without permission. She was working a project for National Geographic about tugboats and shipyard co-owner Mike Gallagher (his oral history is here) admired her work and gave her this access after she supplied an insurance Additional Insured. She also kept a small boat tied up on the property for several years.

The Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, the Save the Graving Dock Committee and the Roebling Chapter, Society for Industrial Archeology presented an exhibition Big Box on the Basin: Retaining Red Hook’s Last Working Shipyard at the Urban Center, 457 Madison Avenue at 51st Street.  The exhibit opened on April 5, 2006 and ran through May 26 of that year. 

https://observer.com/2006/04/graving-dock-no-1past-present-and-future/

As one of the Preservation League of New York State's "Seven to Save" in 2005, the dock garnered interest from preservationists and local maritime advocates before and after the City Council approved the project. 

Todd Shipyard, when located in Sunset Park, built one of NYC's most beloved historic ships today, the fireboat JOHN J. HARVEY. You can see the name TODD in raised letters on the bits on the ship. The HARVEY was retired by the FDNY and, under the management of a nonprofit, was called back into service on 9/11, a story memorialized in the children's book Fireboat and multiple read-aloud videos here and here.

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