Men outside Clinton Market, an “Italian American Grocery,” 1958.

Red Hook Play Center, June 26, 1961. The Red Hook Play Center, one of eleven public pools built by the WPA, opened to the public in August, 1936. Today, the Olympic-sized pool is named for benefactor Sol Goldman and is part of the larger Red Hook Recreation Area, which includes athletic fields and fitness facilities. The pool facility was built on a lot created by landfill in 1904 for a freight terminal that was never constructed. In 1939, three years after the Play Center’s opening, the Red Hook Houses development was completed across several adjoining blocks. By the 1980s, the pool’s condition had deteriorated, necessitating a three-year restoration project funded in part by Sol Goldman (Goldman was again called on to contribute funds when a budget shortfall imperiled public pool openings in the summer of 1991).

Coffey Park ca. 1951 Coffey Park sits snug in the middle of Red Hook. Before it was Coffey Park, it was Red Hook Park. Before that, it was a patch of land in a developing neighborhood of Brooklyn. Due to the rise of the waterfront industry and population growth of the mid to late 1800s, Red Hook grew in size. People arrived, houses were built, and a park was declared. It was named after Michael Coffey, a well-known representative of the district and long-time resident of Red Hook. The mid-1800s saw a rise in population for the small Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook as a result of the construction of the Atlantic Basin in 1839 and the opening of the Erie Basin in the late 1860s. Shipyards, docks, and piers were built along the waterfront and Red Hook became a bustling little neighborhood of longshore and dock workers. In 1867 the City Board of Alderman elected Michael J. Coffey to represent Brooklyn’s 12thWard. Born in County Cork, Ireland, Coffey and his family came to the United States in 1844. They lived in Chicago for five years before moving east to New York and settling in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook. Expressing interest in local politics, Coffey got involved with the Democratic Party and served as Alderman of Brooklyn’s 12th Ward from 1867 through 1874. After serving as a New York State Assemblyman from 1874 to 1892, Coffey was once again elected as Alderman of the 12th Ward, this time as Alderman President. Previously known as Red Hook Park, the land was purchased by the Brooklyn Parks Department in 1892. The new park, renamed Coffey Park, opened in 1901 and soon after in 1907, more acres of land were purchased to expand the grounds. Many years later in 1943, a third tract of land on Pioneer Street was bought and the full expanse of Coffey Park was complete.

Defonte’s Sandwich Shop, 1939. Founded in 1922 by Nick Defonte, the sandwich shop claims to be the oldest eatery in Red Hook.

“Red Hook Houses, a low rent government housing center, under construction on the north side of Lorraine Street. The entire block from Creamer to Lorraine Streets is an empty lot. April 19,1939.” (Note the stray dog in the foreground!) The Red Hook Houses were completed in 1939, and are today split into two complexes, East and West. This is the East complex. The “empty lot” is now a parking lot.

Construction was begun on the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel in 1940. Initially, Robert Moses had pushed for a bridge in the same place, but those plans were scrapped by the Dept. of War citing both security concerns (the bridge would be close to Brooklyn's Navy Yard) and citizen's outcry to preserve the Battery, which was largely undeveloped at the time (an unstated reason was Moses' feud with President Roosevelt.) Instead of a bridge, a tunnel was built to connect the two boroughs. Four towers ventilate the two-mile-long strip of underground highway, refreshing air every 90-seconds.

Brooklyn approach to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, 1950. Conceived in the late 1930s by city officials, this project was one that master planner Robert Moses was actually not a proponent (and complained about the resulting tunnel for decades). Moses wanted to construct a bridge between lower Manhattan and Brooklyn but city officials, including Mayor LaGuardia, and President Roosevelt advocated for the tunnel (with FDR citing issues of national security in the construction of a bridge as well as his dislike for Moses). Construction on the tunnel began in 1940, with FDR attending the groundbreaking ceremony, but was waylaid by World War II. Completed and opened to traffic in 1950 it is the longest continuous underwater road in North America. In 2010 it was renamed (officially, though not colloquially) the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, for the former New York State Governor.

Public School 27 at the corner of Nelson and Hicks Streets, 1930. This school building was constructed in 1890, but an 1885 Brooklyn Eagle report describes a school operating at the same location five years earlier. The report details unsanitary conditions in the low-lying area: the Slab City shanty town near the Gowanus Canal, “sewerless streets,” tidal and runoff ponds, and a “vast public dumping ground” along Delevan Street between Richards and Dwight Streets.

The completion of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel in May, 1950 marked the end of 10 years of planning and engineering, overcoming back-breaking labor, war, and financial difficulty that stood in its way. At the time the nation’s longest most modern underwater vehicular tunnel, the Brooklyn-Battery tunnel had about as turbulent a history as any of New York’s infrastructure. It was the most expensive two-mile bit of highway ever built at the time - costing more than $40,000,000 a mile. A connection between Brooklyn and Manhattan was first conceived of in 1929. Initially, a graceful, double-unit suspension bridge was to connect the boroughs, featuring a ramp leading down to Governor's Island at the apex. Unfortunately, various groups objected against its potential to disfigure the Battery Park Landscape, and President FDR cited security concerns. In the end, the War Department barred the construction of the bridge in 1939. Funding dwindled on the endeavor to drill a two-mile tunnel between Battery Park and Brooklyn until the Reconstruction Finance Corporation offered $57,000,000 in loans towards its construction. Ground broke on October 28th, 1490, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt on hand for the momentous occasion. Major construction work began in 1941 and for nearly two years, it slowly marched forward. On the Manhattan end, a hole 24-feet in diameter was carved through solid rock which began 2,800 feet under the surface of the river. The Brooklyn side was challenged with softer rock to drill through at about 1,000 feet from the entrance at Hamilton Avenue and Van Brunt Street. The United States entry into World War II put an end to construction on the tunnel, leaving both materials and manpower becoming scarcer every day. In fact, progress on the tunnel came to a standstill towards the end of 1942. For three years the whole project lay idle, only the throne of pumps on the Brooklyn side signifying that the tunnel job was not forgotten. Things began humming again at the end of the war in 1945. Water was pumped out, concrete shields were removed, and men came back to work. It took another five years for the tunnel to be completed and acclaimed as a modern marvel. Fully illuminated, with fresh air exchanged every 90 seconds, the tunnel was opened with great fanfare.

Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Roman Catholic Church, from Red Hook Park, 1931. This is the Visitation congregation’s third church, a Gothic Revival building, built of dark Manhattan schist in 1896 after a fire destroyed the previous building on this site.

J.H.S. 142, Stranahan Junior High School, June 26, 1961. J.H.S. 142, the junior high school attached to P.S. 142, occupied a mid-century addition at the corner of Henry and Coles Streets (note the 1959 cornerstone). The school closed in 2006.