When Transmitter Park finally opened in 2012, many longtime Greenpoint residents were shocked to realize that for decades they had been denied amazing views of the East River. They wondered […]
Tag: brooklyn history
Posted inCulture
North Brooklyn Is Home to One of America’s Oldest Mosques
I had often walked by the inconspicuous former church at 104 Powers St. near the border of Greenpoint and Williamsburg, yet I never noticed the sole sign that this was […]
Posted inHistorical Greenpoint
Charles Evans Hughes: Greenpoint’s Forgotten Statesman
He did not look like a Greenpointer, he did not act like one either and with his eloquent vocabulary and upper-class speech he sure did not sound like one, nevertheless, […]
Posted inHistorical Greenpoint
Glass Blowing and Greenpoint, a Continued Tradition
Echo Glass Works at 253 Greenpoint Ave. offers a dazzling variety of one-of-a-kind custom glass jewelry, kiln cast glass, along with blown glass vessels that simply stun. However, this is […]
Posted inCulture
1940s Greenpoint: Franklin Street
A few months ago the city released its 1940s tax photo archive of over 700,000 black and white pictures and it’s a wonderful way for history nerds to waste hours dreaming of the Greenpoint […]
Posted in(Not)Forgotten Greenpoint
Ben Shahn: Williamsburg’s Greatest Artist Ever?
Ben Shahn’s name today is obscure, but Shahn was perhaps one of the greatest artists ever to come out of Williamsburg. Born in Lithuania, Shahn grew up in the Southside […]
Posted in(Not)Forgotten Greenpoint
The Neglected Abstract Masterpieces of the Williamsburg Houses
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 […]
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
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 […]