American Stevedoring in Red Hook

The Port Authority has agreed to a three-year lease extension for American Stevedoring in Red Hook. The port is the only working port in Brooklyn; the PA is still considering putting a cruise terminal in the southern part of Red Hook. The Post writes this "will hold off on swapping cargo ships for condos" for the moment, but Gothamist is unsure if the area that American Stevedoring, the port service and transportation provider, occupies is the same one where an Ikea or a retail-residential development is to be put up. And who knew that the "small tidal strait" between Brooklyn and Governor's Island was called Buttermilk Channel?

And Gothamist's favorite use of the word stevedore came in a Season 4 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; it's disturbing, yet the only time we've heard the word "stevedore" uttered out loud.

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By Jen Chung in News on July 19, 2004 8:21 AM

Comments [rss]

Schnack

Let's be frank about what is and what isnt' Red Hook.

Whose Map are you using? the Dutch? The Britsh? Early American? America of the 1840's or 1920's or today? Are you going by historical data or by what your real estate agent convinced you of when you rented your apartment?

From the time the Dutch settled Brooklyn in 1636 to the time that the Britsh fought the American army during the battle of Long Island, Red Hook, WAS An Island... A very tiny island that probably didn't go even as far a Pioneer or Commerce St. Where Schnack was at Union St, was probably a high tide area, and the Erie Basin and the Atlantic Basin were just natural coves. The area around Smith St and 3rd Ave along the present Canal was known as Gowanus; it was a natural cove with some streams. Also during the British time there was some woody areas known as "the Woody Heights of Guana."

But my the 1840's red hook had grown. There was a area with 1,000's of workers and so forth. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from the 1840's refers to several "villages" within Red Hook including one near Hoyt and Bond and 4th Place..

If you grew up in the area during the 1920's or 1930's Red Hook streched from Atlantic to Smith and all the way to the Erie Basin.

As it got rougher and rougher the real estate people "expanded" Carroll Gardens; there was no Carroll Gardens when the Dutch were in the area.

Amy Langfield

We're near Sackett and Columbia and we've been telling people we live at the edge of Red Hook and Carroll Gardens. Gobs of names for this nabe. Historian Francis Morrone gave me the low-down a couple months ago. It's posted here. He said the name Carroll Gardens didn't exist until the 1960s; until then it was all Red Hook.

Matt

If you like the word Stevedore AND watching TV, watch "The Wire" on HBO Sunday nights now! The second season which they are replaying currently features an entire union of stevedores in Baltimore. As an aside, it's also an incredible study of the flow of money, drugs and people from overseas crime syndicates, through the container system and port, past the cops who are trying to build a case, and on to the street gangs.

AVR

The container port is in Red hook. Simple.

Leslita

I live pretty close by (Henry between Union & Sackett), and I hear most people refer to this area as the Columbia Waterfront District. (Schnack calls it the "Gateway to Red Hook," but that's a bit of a stretch.)

I don't see Columbia Street on the map you posted, but that term goes for pretty much everything on that side of the BQE.

Aaron

Actually, the real estate nomenclature is "Carroll Gardens West," not "Outer Carroll Gardens."

Amy Langfield lives over there. Amy, what are you calling it?

Max

One need only listen to the first track on the Decembrist's latest fabulous album to hear another real live human saying (singing) the word 'stevedore.'

Janine

Who knew that the small tidal strait between Brooklyn and Governor's Island was called Buttermilk Channel?

Ask Gothamist knew!

http://www.gothamist.com/ask/archives/2004/06/30/name_that_water.php

Aaron Bailey

That port location is considerably north of the proposed Ikea site. Ikea would be on the southern end of the "hook" facing almost directly south, whereas American Stevedoring looks towards Governor's Island and Manhattan and is situated on the western edge of the hook.