Category: Articles
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Henry Miller’s Williamsburg Fantasy
Author Henry Miller spent the first decade of his life living at 662 Driggs Avenue. Geoff Cobb, writing in Greenpointers, recently took a look at an article Miller wrote in 1971 about his childhood home: Though he had been away for five decades, Miller had a crystal clear memory, recalling many fascinating stories from that…
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Greenpoint is Over
“MarieBelle’s flagship store [is] in New York’s famous Soho District […and it] has a rustic-style Cacao Market in trendy Greenpoint, Brooklyn”. Based on this press release, I think that we can put February 19, 2019 down in the calendar as the date that Greenpoint officially jumped the gentrification shark.
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“We Have Not Figured Out Exactly How to Handle That”
“We have not figured out exactly how to handle that” is a quote from MTA Managing Director Ronnie Hakim about overcrowding on the First Avenue and Third Avenue platforms specifically, but it might as well be the mantra of MTA and City DOT when it comes to the new plan to fix the L train…
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Yankowsky and Yankowsky
From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1910: “The man was Andrew Yankowsky, 22 years old, an iron worker, who occupied a furnished room at 81 Grand street, with Andrew Yankowsky. The two are no relation.”
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335 Grand Street
I’ve always been curious about 335 Grand Street – one of the buildings involved in a partial collapse that I linked to earlier today. It’s design is – odd. Clearly Italianate in design, but the unibrow swag lintels are unique, and the relationship of the lintels to the undersized windows is awkward at best. Looking…
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Domino Sugar Refinery
In 2006, Williamsburg Greenpoint Preservation Association did a very in-depth report on the history and architecture of the Domino Sugar Refinery, parts of which were incorporated into the Landmarks designation report for the Processing House and into the very detailed and comprehensive report that was prepared for the Historic American Engineering Record.
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Dime Savings Bank to be Landmarked
The Landmarks Preservation Commission is moving forward with landmark designation for the Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh.
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Memories of Old Williamsburgh
Lovely podcast from the Brooklyn Historical Society looking at Francis Morrell’s genealogy of old Williamsburgh, historical geography, African-American history and Puerto Rican migration.
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All Parking
A lot of people have been speculating as to what an “as-of-right” development at the CitiStorage property might look like. The property – promised as a park in 2005, but still in private hands – is zoned for M3 (heavy industrial). The likelihood of a rezoning to residential use or to a lesser degree of…