For years brilliant avant-guarde murals lay hidden inside a local housing project, but thanks to an intrepid art history detective they were rediscovered and everyone today can enjoy their […]
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 in(Not)Forgotten Greenpoint
The Abandoned Subway Tunnel Teasing Williamsburg
Imagine how much easier it would be for alternative transportation with the L train apocalypse if there was a parallel subway line from Williamsburg providing another route to Manhattan! In […]
Posted in(Not)Forgotten Greenpoint
Serpico’s North Brooklyn Connections to the Iconic Tale of an Honest Cop
Arguably one of the greatest films ever made about New York City, the film “Serpico” and the eponymous biography by author Peter Mass, which sold over three million copies, is […]
Posted inEat & Drink
Fish Fridays at Acme Fish
On Friday mornings, especially during the holiday season, a long line of people magically appears Friday mornings at 30 Gem St, a typical industrial street of non-descript warehouses. You can […]
Posted in(Not)Forgotten Greenpoint
Woordworking Is Greenpoint’s Oldest Craft
The first Greenpointer was a woodworker: Norwegian immigrant, ship’s carpenter and master carpenter of the City of New Amsterdam, Dirck Volckertszen, built the first house here Near Franklin and Calyer […]
Posted inCulture
The Greenpointer Who Became a Taxidermy Legend
Greenpoint does not seem like a very likely place to have a tradition of taxidermy, but this is an area that is always full of surprises and it turns […]
Posted in(Not)Forgotten Greenpoint
Williamsburgs’ Enchanted Fillmore Place and the Author Who Immortalized the Street
Thanks in large part to the writings of celebrated author Henry Miller and the stately Italianate houses on the street, Fillmore Place were landmarked in 2009 and will forever […]
Posted in(Not)Forgotten Greenpoint
Heavy Metal: North Brooklyn’s Rich History of Casting Metals
There are few regions of New York City that can match North Brooklyn for its history of metal casting. Many of New York’s most iconic pieces of cast iron, steel […]
Posted in(Not)Forgotten Greenpoint
Aaron Burr’s Scandalous Trysts in Greenpoint
With all of the praise surrounding Lin-Manuel Miranda’s extraordinary musical, “Hamilton,” it is not surprising that the man who killed him, the villain Aaron Burr, has also enjoyed something of […]
Posted inHistorical Greenpoint
A Stroll Down Historic Guernsey Street
Perhaps other blocks in Greenpoint have more elegant houses or more imposing churches, but no block has more beautiful trees than Guernsey Street, which runs parallel to the river between […]