Greenpoint has experienced its fair share of environmental issues over the years including one of the biggest continental oil spills in U.S. history, the construction of New Yorks’ largest wastewater […]
Category: Historical Greenpoint
North Brooklyn Narratives Wants You to Make History
North Brooklyn Narratives (@nbknarratives), the new volunteer-led oral history initiative from North Brooklyn Mutual Aid, hopes that you will.
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 […]
‘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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
1940s Manhattan Avenue in Photos
Manhattan Avenue, like the rest of New York City, has seen a lot of changes since 1940, and here we’ve compiled a ‘before and after’ series of the northern stretch […]
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 […]
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- […]
A History of Greenpoint Piers
There is no more important geographical feature of Greenpoint than our waterfront defined by piers, wharves and docks, so let us take a moment and examine in more detail […]