The Ghosts of Columbia Street: More Irving Street Shots

Here are some more shots of the vanished Brooklyn waterfront road called Irving Street, all courtesy of Freebird Books.

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The Ghosts of Columbia Street: More Irving Street Images

Earlier this fall, I started posted selected images from a cache of old photos of Columbia Street that were uncovered by Freebird Books, a local used book store. The photos dated from the 1960s and 1970s. Some of the more interesting shots depicted Irving Street, an old, two-block waterfront street that has since been demapped.

The proprietor of Freebird recently scanned and uploaded a new set of the photo collection. (There are many more to come. Freebird owns all the photos I post here.) Among there are a variety of shots of Irving Street. Two of them are seen here. The one above, from the 1970s, gives you a pretty good idea of what the expanse and character of Irving was, despite the damage to the photo. Pretty breathtaking how the road stretched right down to the river.

As the owner of Freebird says in his caption: "By the late '60s it was essentially a quiet cul de sac for the Puerto Rican community, a backdrop for events and sports activities. The reclamation of a large empty lot on the street's northern side is chronicled in these photos, as well as other attempts (like mural paintings) to beautify other abandoned buildings."

The photo seen below is from 1964 and depicts a parade of sorts.

The Ghosts of Columbia Street: An Actual Picture of Irving Street!

I've written in the past about the Brooklyn waterfront ghost streets of Irving Street and Sedgwick Street. These were two two-block thoroughfares that rans from Columbia Street, between Kane and DeGraw, to the East River. They were lined with warehouses and businesses having to do with the shipping industry. Both streets hung around for more than a century or so before being eliminated in the 1990s when the land west of Columbia was denuded of buildings and paved over in service of the waterfront. For years, signs still hung on Columbia Street indicating the former locations of Irving and Sedgwick.

Until now, I never seen an actual photograph of either road. But the clutch of old photographs recently uncovered by Freebird Books includes a few shots of Irving (though none of Sedgwick). The photo above is taken from a lot on Columbia looking west down Irving. As you can see, the lane led right to the water. That thatch of green you see at the end of Irving is Governor's Island. The street is lined with old warehouses and industrial building, just as every map I've seen has always indicated it was.

Over their long existence, Irving and Sedgwick were places of action. The newspapers are full of old accounts of factory fires, fights, murders, the production of illegal booze, suicides and various other crimes that occurred on those gritty blocks.

The fellows in this picture look like tough customers. But they're actually hard at work converting that empty lot into a kind of recreation area for the surrounding Puerto Rican community.

The Ghosts of Columbia Street: Parade Day

Not much information to go along with this lovely image of Columbia Street, between Kane and Degraw Streets, circa 1955. I'm guessing it's an Independence Day parade, judging by the many flags, the bright sun and the summer clothing. The barber shop in the background is 133 Columbia Street. The building doesn't exist anymore.

As with all the previous photos in this series, they belong to Freebird Books of Columbia Street.

The Ghosts of Columbia Street: Rayco Machine Co.

Here, in the latest of the wonderful stash of old Columbia Street images recently claimed from obscurity by Freebird Books, is a shot of the Rayco Machine Company, a player in the area's now bygone industrial past. It stood at the northeast corner of Columbia and Baltic Street, and there's not a sign of the company or the building today. (All photos are the property of Freebird Books.)

But Rayco is not what's interesting about this photo. What is is the gigantic ad for the Guido Funeral Home of the side of the building. This business is still a going concern, and operates on the corner of Carroll and Union Streets inside the historic John Rankin mansion. There it is below (photo courtesy of Carroll Gardens Patch.) There's a long, long history to that building, which I really should tell one of these days.

The Ghosts of Columbia Street: Eddie's Bar

Here's the latest shot from a cache of old 1960s photos of the Columbia Street, Brooklyn, area recently uncovered by Freebird Books. (All photos seen are the property of Freebird.) This photo depicts the southeast corner of Columbia and Congress Streets, as seen from the north (above) and from the west (below).

We can conclude by this time that Columbia was once a street of many bars. Previous photos depicted Otto's Scandinavian Bar and La Gondola Bar. Here we see Eddie's Bar (right across the street from Van Vorhees playground) and another bar/restaurant, the White Horse Bar, just two door down. The building that held Eddie's has since been demolished; there's an empty lot there today.

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The Ghosts of Columbia Street: La Gondola Bar

As I mentioned in a past yesterday, I was recently contracted by the owner of Freebird Books, a fine indy used book store on Columbia Street. He recently lucked into a cache of old photos of the Columbia Street area, circa 1966, when the neighborhood still shows signed of its former life as a waterfront street, and a Scandinavian, Italian and Puerto Rican stronghold. 

I posted an old photo of Otto's Scandinavian Bar, at Columbia and Kane, yesterday. Here is a shot of La Gondola Bar, where sat directly opposite Otto's, to the north. Below is another view of the bar, and below that is a look at the building today, which most recently housed a sushi joint. (All of the photos are the property of Freebird.) It has been a bad-luck corner for the past few decades, with businesses coming and going quickly.  The building is remarkably the same, right down to the double entrance.

The Ghosts of Columbia Street Past: Otto's

I was recently contracted by the owner of Freebird Books, a fine indy used book store on Columbia Street, near Kane. He told me he had recently given given a cache of old photos by a neighbor on nearby Tiffany Place who was moving out. The photos and negatives were of the Columbia Street area, and date from roughly the 1960s, when the neighborhood was on its way down but had not yet been utterly killed by the long 1970s Columbia Street sewer dig. Many of the buildings that are now vacant, or have been converted to apartments or torn down, can be seen with stores in their ground-floor spaces. Quite a number of bars and restaurants, too.

You can see all the photos that have been scanned so far at Freebird's Flickr page. (Both of these photos are the property of Freebird.) There will be more to come. Here's one of Otto's Scandinavian Bar, at the southeast corner of Columbia and Kane. I have posted a photo of Otto's before on Lost City, but this is a new view. Below is a view of the space today. The restaurant that opened in the space last year recently closed. 

Lost City's Guide to Red Hook

The once-bustling waterfront community of Red Hook has lost a great deal of its original life. Nearly all, really. Van Brunt, Conover, and Richards Streets are lined with the ghosts of formally vital storefronts. If you want to know what life was like in the shipping days, when work was plentiful for Irish, Italian and Swedish laborers, and street life teemed with pushcarts and stickball, you'll have to talk to the old-timers still hanging on, because there's not much evidence of it on the streets themselves. Unlike other nearby neighborhoods, the recent gentrification has not been hung on a few enduring businesses and institutions, but built from the ground up. If I wished to tell you what used to be in Red Hook, this guide could go on and on. As it is, the tracing of Red Hook's living history is a much short affair.

DEFONTE'S: This sandwich outpost at Columbia and Luquer Streets, near the north end of Red Hook, is about as old as surviving businesses get in Red Hook, to my reckoning. Somehow, the 1922 eatery has survived in the middle of absolutely nowhere for decades. The mint-green building with all the upper windows boarded over is pure Hopper, sitting lonely on its blighted corner. It's family-owned, founded by a immigrant from Mori di Bari (the hometown of so many of the local Italian families). The sandwiches are big, good and cheap. They recently opened a Manhattan branch, so they must be doing well.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH OF THE VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY: Walk south down Columbia and then Dwight Street to Verona. Turn right along the north side of COFFEY PARK. The dark forboding Roman Catholic Church of the Visitation dominates this central green of Red Hook. The church was established in 1954. This building is the second to stand on the site. A former structure, erected in 1878, was destroyed by fire on July 12, 1896. The present Gothic affair was built in 1896.

THE "R" SIGN: Look above at the abandoned billboard atop the building at Richards and Venona. This used to belong to paper goods manufacturer named E.J. Trum. When John Turano & Sons Furniture took over the address in 1978, they tried to tear down the Trum letters. All but the stubborn "R," and a period, were removed. There they remain. Let's just say it stands for Red Hook.


RED HOOK POOL: Walk back to Dwight, turn right, walk down to Lorraine. Turn left and walk to Clinton. Turn right to Bay Street. The Red Hook Pool, officially know as the Sol Goldman Recreation Center and Pool, is a gem of a relic from the WPA area, a gloriously huge pool and in great condition. It's an attraction of constant popularity in the summer, fostering a wonderfully democratic picture of community summertime fun.

RED HOOK BALLFIELD VENDORS: Kitty-corner from the pool, in Red Hook Park, during the summer months, are a gathering of Latin food purveyors collectively known as the Red Hook Ballfield Vendors. From these carts, offering the best local versions of delicacies from El Salvador, Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic, you will receive some of the best street food in all of New York. The vendors have been working their magic for 20 years or so, and though they are singularly unappreciated by the City or the Parks Department, they are beloved of New Yorkers.


ERIE BASIN PARK: Walk west on Bay to Otsego. As you go, look south to the rusted-out behemoth of the PORT OF NEW YORK GRAIN ELEVATOR TERMINAL, standing starkly again the horizon like some accursed post-industrial City of Oz. Turn left on Otsego to Beard Street. I haven't brought you here to admire the new IKEA, but Erie Basin Park, which IKEA built as a sort of olive branch to the community for tearing down the historic Todd Shipyards. They did a fairly excellent job, and the expansive collection of piers, greenery, walkways, bike paths and maritime paraphernalia nicely captures the spirit and air of old Red Hook.

BEARD STREET: As you walk west on Beard toward Van Brunt, take note of he Belgian Blocks on the road. These can be found all over Red Hook, as well as remnants of old trolley tracks.

FAIRWAY: Again, I didn't bring you hear to appreciate the produce, but to take a look at the pre-Civil War coffee warehouse Fairway renovated as its Brooklyn home. It's an undeniably handsome object. Inside, head to the back patio. There, you can enjoy unadulterated views of Staten Island, the Statue of Liberty and the water traffic in New York Harbor. To the left are three old TROLLEY CARS, the sad testimony of Brooklynite Bob Diamond's doomed effort to bring trolley service back to Red Hook.

BEARD STREET WAREHOUSES: Across Van Brunt from Fairway, and continues south along Erie Basin are the long, red-brick Beard Street Warehouse, simply one of the most beautiful and beautifully situated industrial structures in America. Catch the Civil-War-era buildings at sunset for an unmatchable sight.

WEIRD MARITIME BUILDING: Walk west on Reed Street, just in front of Fairway, to No. 20, a curious two-story black building that looks like it's auditioning for the part of Old Maritime Building, covered as it is with plastic fish, life preservers, ship wheels and flags. It's actually just a building some guy uses to work on his old cars and have a few beers with his buds. Adds local character, though.

SUNNY'S BAR: Walk to Conover and turn right. Sunny's Bar is one of the few holdouts from the old days. In the Balzano family since the 1930s, it is now opened only occasionally, whenever Sunny feels like it. The well-preserved interior is well worth a looksee.

Previous Lost City Neighborhood Guides