March 2019 marks Forgotten New York’s 20th anniversary. To celebrate the occasion, I’ve re-scanned about 150 key images from the early days of FNY from 35MM prints. In the early days, when people including me were accessing FNY with dial-up modems, I had to save photos really small — in some cases, just 4″ across. I couldn’t find all those early photos — I think I foolishly discarded some along the way — but all month, and into April, I’ll be picking out some and showing the newly scanned versions.
The Todd Shipyards, also known as New York Shipyards, fronted along Beard and Halleck Streets west of Columbia Street and once sported the largest dry dock on the east coast. The Monitor, the first ironclad vessel from the Civil war era, was once repaired here. The yards feature brick structures with heavy timber posts and machine that have 1920s-era Bauhaus industrial design highlights with skylights and 20-foot-tall windows.
In the above photo taken from a boat in the Erie Basin, The Shipyards offices are the low-slung red brick buildings, with the Red Hook Houses looking over their shoulder. Everything in the photo except the Houses has now been razed to make way for a Ikea furniture complex, with its massive adjoining parking lot.
Philip Lopate in his book “Waterfront” describes an incident in which the crew of a damaged Central American freighter were detained here for 6 months until its owner could pay for repairs. Its crew was too afraid to venture into the Red Hook streets for provisions.
To the west of Ikea, Beard and Halleck Streets are preternaturally quiet, with the only sounds on a Saturday afternoon being the shouts coming from the soccer fields of Red Hook Park. Rocky Sullivan’s has opened an outpost at Beard and Dwight. Red Hook has a split identity, with its sleepy side streets and main drag, Van Brunt Street, is set apart from two bustling bastions; the Fairway supermarket in the old Beard Street “store” warehouses as well as the Ikea.
In a fantasy sequence from the Sopranos TV drama, Tony Soprano is pictured on Beard Street in front of the old Todd Shipyards offices. The buildings were torn down shortly after; actor James Gandolfini perished from a heart attack in 2013.
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop, and as always, “comment…as you see fit.”
3/21/19
8 comments
I was in the US Coast Guard in the 1970s. Our ship was due for an overhaul, and when the rumor spread that we would go to Red Hook I heard many horror stories about how dangerous it was to leave the yard in anything but a large group.
I remember your posts about the sjmhipyard from back then.
I was a US Customs Patrol Officer in the ‘70s and we would Patrol the area around the Todd Shipyard, Columbia St and the Brooklyn waterfront when ships were in port. Back then it was a pretty ruff and dangerous area for everyone that ventured there.
My Grandfather George Banks owned a shipyard in Brooklyn NY back in the 30’s does anyone have info on this ?
I worked as ship supervisor and Safety Inspector in Todd Shipyard Brooklyn for several years in the 70’s after graduating college. My dad was the shipyard
Personnel Manager and worked for Todd Shipyards for 50 years before retirement in 1978. No doubt it was a dangerous area in those days, but I learned more working in that place than in 4 years of college! Some really great people with great skills worked in the trades there!
McRoberts
I have a metal badge with a family worker that was employed at this shipyard.
my grandfather william salomon worked here his father fixed navy boats wonder if any of you worked with him