YOU find the darnedest things on Facebook. I subscribe to several pages that display historic images, such as Brownstone Detectives. Last week, this photo was displayed showing what was the Pioneer Boat Club in 1873, when the waters of Gowanus Bay were almost licking the roadbed of 3rd Avenue. Since the caption indicates the boat club existed from 1809-1919 (I have to take those dates with a grain of salt) I suspect the photo was taken later than 1873; I don’t think 3rd Avenue and the rest of the street grid in this area were fully built out. But whenever it was taken, it’s pretty amazing to see that the bay nearly reached 3rd Avenue.
This map produced in the 1880s, also from Brownstone Detectives, does prove that Gowanus Bay once almost got as far as 3rd Avenue at 34th Street. The street grid was in place then, at least on paper. You can see, though, by “ghost” streets in the bay, that plans were afoot to fill in the bay and build the shoreline out to its current state…
…since the early 20th Century the massive Industry City-Bush Terminal spread has dominated the region between 2nd and 3rd Avenues in the 20s and 30s, mainly because of the vision of one man, Irving T. Bush, who constructed the sprawling historic intermodal shipping, warehousing, and manufacturing complex today used for a variety of small businesses that include film, TV, and fashion manufacturing and even a few restaurants. The buildings seem like they can withstand bomb attacks. Unusually the streets between them have kept their Belgian block pavement and many do not have DOT street lighting.
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2/4/22
8 comments
Is the statue of Bush still there?
Aunt Harriett worked there for Sperry Gyroscope during the war
A June, 1875 Brooklyn Daily Eagle article identifies the club’s location as 34th and Third. Later pieces say it’s at “the foot of 34th Street.” Later articles refer to its location as 33rd Street and 36th Street (could be inaccurate) but by 1901 there was a reference to the clubhouse at 66th Street being in decrepit state. Can’t say if the photo is from 1872, but it’s possible. The Hyde atlas (circa 1903) shows Second Ave. as the waterfront (it also shows the north end of 2nd Avenue as the stub it remains to be until the present).
Boat and yacht clubs have a history of relocating. The Williamsburgh Yacht Club is in College Point, but you can guess where it was founded.
Concerning the corner of 34th Street and Third Avenue, the inland side of this intersection has a park since 1940, known as D’Emic Playground.
Greenpoint, of course! Pottery Beach, at the foot of Eagle Street to be precise.
I was born in 1948 in St. Elizabeths Hospital and lived 3 yrs. on 27th st.#186 i believe just off the west side of 3rd ave. meaning my cold water flat (no heat or hot water) but infested with rats and roaches ) was under water.I think the area was known as Sunset Park or Park Slope.My dads auto body shop was in the 20th sts,with factories across the st and later the Gowanus expswy.The shop was Hilltop Auto Painting it was atop the hill,and like my dad would say the long line of bldg from the top of the hill to 2nd or 1st ave.had 4 ground floors.He later moved to to 18th and Cropsey in Bensonhurst.
My fathers former business rented over 100K square feet in Bush Terminal from the mid 60’s to 1980 making educational toys and school supplies like in the below link….back in the day when things were not only made in the USA but made in Brooklyn. The landlord raised the rent higher than the .80 per square foot they were paying….yes 80 CENTS! and the company moved the factory to North Carolina. Today it would be made in China.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313&_nkw=american+visual+aids&_sacat=0
My father worked for the Sperry Gyroscope Company during WW2, at it’s Bush Terminal plant. He machined parts for the Sperry bombsight, which, although not as famous, was considered technologically superior to the Norden bombsight. Between the two, they enabled the American and British Air Forces to flatten Germany. Whenever we drove past on the Gowanus Expressway, he would say “That’s where we helped to win the war!”.
I just subscribed to Brownstone Detectives. Thanks Kevin.