According to the ever-nostalgic, often-bickering worthies on the South Brooklyn Network chat room, there used to be a rough and tumble bar in Red Hook called Shaft Alley. It was "infamous" and "sat at the end of Hamilton Avenue roughly where the container port entrance is now. There was a woman bartender in there who could beat the crap atta ya if ya got atta line. She was one tough brawd."
According to another old time, "Shaft Alley must have been right next to Hockin Valley - which I think is where Imlay St. is now." Hockin Valey was apparently "where you would go to hock stuff."
Shaft Alley is an amazingly appropriate name for a bar in Red Hook, given the waterfront industry of the time. Shaft Alley is a ship term. It means "a casing (large enough in which to walk), covering the propeller shaft and extending from engine room to after peak."
It is amazing looking at old Brooklyn pictures from before Robert Moses Brooklyn. If you know the Chase bank on Summit and Hamilton, imagine today your walking down Hamilton towards the bank and the docks. got that mental image. Now look at what it used to look like...
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great blog BTW
Used to drive my pop down to work at pier 11 Liked to stop at shaft alley for an eye opener. Loved that old nabe and those rough and tumble longshoremen.
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