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Red Hook

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Brooklyn History Photo of the Week – Dry Dock 1

Dry Dock 1, 1928, v1973.5.875; Photography Collection; Brooklyn Historical Society.

Dry Dock 1, 1928, v1973.5.875; Photography Collection; Brooklyn Historical Society.

This photograph features a dry dock that was part of Todd Shipyards in Red Hook. This image was taken to document the reopening of the dock, which had been expanded to a length of 730 feet and a total capacity of more than 15,000,000 gallons of water. According to notes on the verso of the photograph, the dock was the largest privately-owned dry dock on the Atlantic Seaboard, and allowed Todd Shipyards “to dry dock 175,000 tons of shipping in one day – a capacity not exceeded by any other shipyard in the world.”

In 2004, a plan was approved for Ikea to tear down the shipyard, including this dock, to accommodate its Red Hook store and parking lot. Despite efforts from preservation groups, the dock was demolished in 2006. More information about this dock can be found at the Save Industrial Brooklyn website.

Oral History in the Classroom at PS 27 in Red Hook

PS 27 in Red Hook (since 1890!)

PS 27 in Red Hook (since 1890!)

Sady and I took a trip down to nearby Red Hook to teach 4th graders at PS 27 about oral history. We played clips from BHS collections and discussed them with the kids, who were learning about Weeksville, Bed-Stuy and the African American experience in Brooklyn.

The kids were quite excited when we told them that the workshop would end with them conducting interviews that would be saved in the BHS collections for perpetuity (We didn’t use the word perpetuity with the 4th graders.). Look for those kids’ interviews (which were great and suprisingly sophisticated) on our podcast. We’ll put them up once we get the parents to sign off on it and have a chance to edit out some of the (long, thoughtful) pauses.

Sady at DeFonte's

Sady, Excited to be at DeFonte's in Red Hook

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our wonderful lunch at one of Red Hook & Brooklyn’s most famous sandwich joints—DeFonte’s! I was so excited to be there that I got two sandwiches. The first one was a peppers and eggs with cheese and ketchup on a hoagie roll. Delicious, but perhaps a bit of a carb overload. The second (which I saved most of for dinner) was Soprasata, Provelone, and Capicola ham with onions and olives—DELICIOUS! The place is a Brooklyn classic and has been there for years (since 1922!). If you’ve never been down there, GO NOW, and take a bite out of Red Hook history.

Red Hook Wedding Hall?

Yesterday, we hosted the Brooklyn Real Estate Roundtable.  I wasn’t there, but according to the Brooklyn Paper this morning, Red Hook developer Greg O’Connell (who built the Fairway) is proposing a high-end wedding hall near the end of Van Dyke Street.

The funny thing is, while this announcement was being discussed downstairs, I was upstairs interviewing Frank Palescandolo (b. 1917), a writer who grew up in Coney Island and whose most famous book Rumble on the Docks (1953) is set in Red Hook.  It’s about longshoremen and teenage gangs, it’s got a classic pulp cover, and in 1956 it was made into a movie starring James Darren.

Real World: Brooklyn

MTV’s Real World: Brooklyn premiered last night.  I haven’t seen the show since the 1990s and although I  admit to being curious about their Red Hook habitat, I think reading the Recaps on Gawker will suffice:

Every time they mentioned Brooklyn or played a song about Brooklyn they used, well, a black male chorus of dudes shouting “Brooklyn!!” Which is all well and good, that kind of Bed-Stuy braggadocio is certainly a significant part of popular, visible Brooklyn culture. But I hope they switch it up sometimes. To like a bunch of Lubevitch from Midwood singing “Brooklyn!” or some old Polish ladies from Greenpoint or a Chinese guy from Sunset Park or a nice Italian girl from Bensonhurst. If we’re going to stereotype and noveltize, let’s get everyone in the pot.

Red Hook Film Festival

A film from our exhibit Counter/Culture, curated by James and Karla Murray, is included in this festival!