I completely forgot about this question I received last month from photographer Gary Heller on a building he shot (beautifully) here in the nabe.
Hello,
I am a photographer working and living in Brooklyn (Old Mill Basin) and have been exploring Greenpoint and Williamsburg lately and really love the water towers around the area.I have taken a shot of a delapidated old building on the Greenpoint waterfront just off of West st. and Oak st. I have been trying to find out some info on this building but with no luck. However, I did fortunately come upon your great Greenpointers blog and spent quite some time on it. Love it. Really well done, interesting and love the last rant about the pigeons. lol
I would appreciate any help you could give in identifying this building.
Thanks, hope you can help.
___Gary_____________
If anyone can help Gary in his quest to find out more info, feel free to post a comment or email me.
I think this is what is left of the suspicious great Greenpoint Warehouse Fire. The factory was a rope maker back in the day. It was apparently one of the largest roper makers in the world.
Thanks, yes you are right. After some more researching it is evident that this is what is left standing of the Greenpoint Terminal Market 3 years after the fire.
How'd you get in there? That place has been cordoned off for some time.
I was not able to get near it as it looks like I did in the shot. I was kept a few hundred yards away by a fence but did manage to stand on some crane equipment to get up high enough and shoot over the fence. The height also allowed me to capture some of the East River in the photograph which i was pleased about.
The property owner pulled down the buildings that this structure was part of. Numerous attempts to knock this down have not worked. NO permits for demolition were obtained,the other buildings damaged by the fire were pulled down by ropes and machines by day laborers and trucked away in dumpsters.