Maybe it is just me, but I find McGuinness Boulevard ugly. Huge trucks and streams of traffic wiz by the four-laned, soulless traffic artery. The newer apartment buildings lack […]
Posts by Author Archives: Geoff Cobb
Geoffrey Cobb is a Brooklyn high school history teacher and writer of the blog historicgreenpoint.wordpress.com. He has lived in Greenpoint for over 20years and is the author of a book on the history of the area, "Greenpoint Brooklyn's Forgotten Past."
Posted inHistorical Greenpoint
Williamsburg Roots of David Smith, Who Made First Welded Sculptures
For a working-class industrial area, North Brooklyn has played an outsized influence on American sculpture. The great Western artist Fredrick Remington cast many of his iconic western sculptures at the […]
Posted in(Not)Forgotten Greenpoint
‘Smiling’ Mickey Welch: The Hall of Fame Baseball Pitcher from Williamsburg
Tens of thousands of men have played professional baseball, but only a few have been enshrined in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. One of those rare individuals is pitcher […]
Posted in(Not)Forgotten Greenpoint
The First Professional Baseball Player Began in Williamsburg
Today Al Reach is largely a forgotten figure here in North Brooklyn where he began his baseball career, But Reach not only became the first openly professional baseball player in […]
Posted in(Not)Forgotten Greenpoint
Groundbreaking Williamsburg Female Physician: Mary Crawford
Today female physicians are the norm, but in 1908 when Mary Crawford became Brooklyn’s first female ambulance surgeon at Williamsburg Hospital people were shocked and her male colleagues were outraged. […]
Posted inHistorical Greenpoint
A Short History of the Greenpoint Park With Two Names
Some call it McGolrick Park, while many born and bred locals call it Winthrop Park. So what are you supposed to call it and why does the park have two […]
Posted inCommunity
The Local Purple Heart Recipient Memorialized With a Park
Recently there was a $ 12,000,000 renovation of Sergeant William Dougherty Park, which lies right by the Brooklyn Queens Expressway at the corner of Vandervoort Avenue and Anthony Street. Sergeant […]
Posted inUncategorized
Legendary Writer Henry Miller Recalls Williamsburg of The 1890s
Henry Miller is not only one of the greatest writers Brooklyn ever produced, but also a chronicler of the now vanished North Brooklyn before the building of the Williamsburg Bridge […]
Posted in(Not)Forgotten Greenpoint
A Greenpoint Irish Primer for St. Patrick’s Day
Most people associate Greenpoint with the Polish community, but our area has a long and deep connection to Ireland. Let’s answer a few questions to prepare you fully to celebrate […]
Posted in(Not)Forgotten Greenpoint
The Irish Revolutionary and First Female Mayor of Dublin Who Lived in Greenpoint
It’s both Women’s History Month and the week before St. Patrick’s Day so it is totally fitting that we honor the most famous Irish woman who ever lived in Greenpoint- […]