For decades the remains of the American Manufacturing Company buildings around West and Noble have stood, hulking and vacant, as a reminder of Greenpoint’s industrial past. Now all that is […]
Tag: greenpoint history
Cartoon History, Park Drama & Hank the Dog — The Hook-Up 6/3
The more you know: now you can learn about Greenpoint’s pastry, vaudeville, and industrial history in comic book fashion thanks to cartoonist Julia Wertz. Is McCarren Park the new hotspot […]
Goodbye, Old Neighborhood Store. Hello, Increased Population Density!
For generations, J. Joseph & Sons was a local business that occupied the entire block on Manhattan Avenue between Eagle and Freeman Streets. Three generations ago, when Greenpointers could only […]
A History of Greenpoint in 25 Buildings: Greenpoint’s Haunted House?
If I had to pick one house in Greenpoint to set a horror movie in it would be the big old house set back off the street at the corner […]
A History of Greenpoint in Twenty-Five Buildings: The Old Meserole Mansion
Until the 1960s, New York had very little sense of the importance of historic preservation. It allowed the majestic Pennsylvania Station to be demolished in a tragic act of architectural homicide. […]
A Greenpointer in the Spanish Civil War
In the spring of 1937, the hottest topic at Brooklyn College was the Spanish Civil War. Twenty Brooklyn College students volunteered to go to Spain and fight, despite the fact […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]