85 Calyer Street looks like many other frame houses in Greenpoint, but it was the home of the greatest mechanical genius to ever live in Greenpoint, Thomas Fitch Rowland, and […]
Tag: History
Posted inHistorical Greenpoint
A History of Greenpoint in 25 Buildings: The Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center
One of the oldest surviving local factory buildings is the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center located in the sprawling former factory building at 1155–1205 Manhattan Avenue. The factory dates from […]
Posted inHistorical Greenpoint
Artist Fredrick Remington’s Debt to Greenpoint
Frederic Remington is perhaps the most iconic artist of the American West, and his bronze sculptures capture the essence of the American frontier. Remington’s figures of cowboys and horses seem […]
Posted inHistorical Greenpoint
How Greenpoint Helped Build The Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge is a majestic span with its elegant gothic towers and roadway suspended above the East River. Today we take it for granted, but at the time it […]
Posted inHistorical Greenpoint
Still She Persisted! Sister Francis Gerard Kress: The Fighting Environmentalist Nun
Today almost all the local people know about the massive pollution of Newtown Creek and the oil plume that sits under Greenpoint, but it was not always so. One of […]
Posted inHistorical Greenpoint
Margaret Wise Brown—Greenpoint’s Greatest Writer
Margaret Wise was an amazingly successful writer whose books have sold millions of copies. Brown developed an extraordinary talent to write for small children, perhaps unequaled in literature. Considered by […]
Posted inHistorical Greenpoint
Olympian Connie Darnowski: Greenpoint’s Greatest Ever Female Athlete
Hurdler Connie Darnowski represented the United States in the 1952 and 1956 Olympic games and is the greatest female athlete our area ever produced. Her success is all the more […]
Posted inHistorical Greenpoint
The Greenpoint Woman Who Ran For President?
Belva Lockwood was an early feminist and one of the first women to ever run for president. She ran twice in 1884 and again in 1888 in the days before […]
Posted inHistorical Greenpoint
Women’s History Month: North Brooklyn’s Great Feminist Classic, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Great literature never grows old or feels dated, and no local novel feels more current to local women than Betty Smith’s enduring 1943 classic A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which […]
Posted inHistorical Greenpoint
Just In Time For St. Patrick’s Day – A History of the Irish in Greenpoint!
On Friday everyone becomes Irish for a day—at least in the local bars, but Greenpoint actually has a long and colorful Irish history. The first Irish came to Greenpoint way […]