Red Hook

It’s quite possible that everyone who ever worked at Kranich Soap, or used the products made here at 54-60 Richards Street at Delevan Street in Red Hook, is dead by now.…

A café on the corner of Van Brunt and Dikeman Streets in Red Hook carries the name of one of New York’s forgotten forts.  At old Pier 39 facing Upper…

ForgottenFans who have been with me for a while know that my favorite type of architecture is unadorned, low-rise brick construction, whether used for manufacturing, warehousing, or even residential. I…

This long, low building on the corner of Richards and Van Dyke Street has a distinctive exterior, consisting of 20” thick stones, reminiscent of some churches. It originally was the…

On a ForgottenTour in May 2003, Forgotten Fan Mike Olshan introduced us to Sunny Balzano (1934-2016), whose family’s bar on Conover between Beard and Reed Streets has been a Red Hook…

Red Hook was supposed to erupt in hipsters, and then follow with overdevelopment, in the template of other Brooklyn waterside areas like Williamsburg, Greenpoint and now (apparently) Sunset Park. But…

There’s one less reason for me to visit Red Hook. On February 9, 2014, the collection of trolley cars that Bob Diamond, the rediscoverer of the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel, had…

There are a great deal of relics to be found in Red Hook, including me when I am there, as well as rusting streetcars, waterfront bars, grain terminals and warehouses,…

A sign pointing to Red Hook’s abandoned Fishport could still be found on Columbia Street near Halleck, at least in 2008. The sign pointed the way to an ambitious fish…

I’m in Red Hook about once every 4 years or so. When I lived in Bay Ridge I would sometimes bicycle in, but not that often, because it was ringed…

Red Hook. It’s a Ford, that much I know.

Red Hook is Brooklyn’s Australia: an island nation unto itself. Cut off from downtown and Park Slope by the Gowanus Expressway and forbidding housing projects, it boasts a street system…