On April 24th Ireland will mark the hundredth anniversary of the Easter Rising that led to Irish independence. Irish patriots seized the General Post Office in the heart of […]
Category: Historical Greenpoint
Posted in(Not)Forgotten Greenpoint, Culture, Historical Greenpoint
When Freedom of Expression and Censorship Battled on Manhattan Avenue!
The other day, I gave a talk on the Irish history of Greenpoint, and a long-time Greenpointer offered me a new twist on a famous old Greenpoint legend. Before diving […]
Posted inCommunity, Culture, Historical Greenpoint, News
The Return of the Greenpoint Trolley?
With Mayor de Blasio’s announcement of an imminent light rail line along the East River, history could be preparing to repeat itself. For many years, Greenpoint had only two mass […]
Posted inHistorical Greenpoint
Casting the Iwo Jima Memorial in Greenpoint
The Bedi-Makky building at 227 India Street looks like any other ordinary industrial Greenpoint building. However, it was here that the one of the largest bronze sculpture ever cast in […]
Posted in(Not)Forgotten Greenpoint, Community, Culture, Historical Greenpoint, News
The New East River Trolley: Abridged Version?
When plans were announced by the de Blasio administration for a light rail system running from Astoria to Red Hook, many of us Greenpointers wondered about an important, but perhaps […]
Posted inHistorical Greenpoint
A Gruesome Greenpoint Murder of Long Ago
Sometimes truth proves to be stranger than fiction. Not even the most ghoulish fiction writer could have created anything more macabre than the murder of William Simmons on January 26, […]
Posted inHistorical Greenpoint
The Tragic Tale of Artist John Mulvaney
As a local historian it always amazes me how rich Greenpoint history is and how much local history is forgotten. I wrote a book called Greenpoint Brooklyn’s Forgotten Past to […]
Posted inCommunity, Culture, Historical Greenpoint, News
More Toxic Secrets In This Rare 1980s ‘Hazardous Neighbors’ Brooklyn Study
It’s been a busy couple of weeks in the world of toxic chemicals, specifically as they pertain to Greenpoint. First, Neighbors Allied For Good Growth (NAG) released the ToxiCity Map to bring […]
Posted in(Not)Forgotten Greenpoint, Community, Historical Greenpoint
Hey North Brooklyn, Here’s Our Toxins Mapped
To shine a light on Brooklyn’s murky legacy of contamination, the Neighbors Allied For Good Growth (NAG) and Pratt’s Spatial Analysis and Visualization Initiative ( SAVI) released a beta version of a ToxiCity […]
Posted inHistorical Greenpoint
Distant Mirror of Today’s Anti–Immigrant Hysteria
One big reason we study history is that it repeats itself. The anti-immigrant hysteria being stirred up today is nothing new, especially in Greenpoint. While researching a book on local […]