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