The Brooklyn Navy Yard was established by the Federal government in 1801, and built ships for the U.S. Naval Fleet until 1966. At the height of World War II, it employed over 70,000 workers. Today, it still has working dry docks, but the bulk of it is devoted to various commercial and maufacturing businesses, and is in the midst of dramatic growth and expansion. One of the goals of my residency is to get down as much of the older remnants of the Yard as I can.
These gates were built in 1896. Old photographs show that there were originally a pair of eagles flanking the entrance, and additional faux-medieval turrets to the rear. The buildings were modified, added to, and eventually subtracted from over the years. A 1937 photo shows a large addition which housed the Labor Board, and shows the walls and turrets covered in ivy. At some point, the turrets had been removed and the entire structure encased in a plywood shell, as it became the main entry to the NYPD tow yard.
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| ca 1904. via Brooklyn Navy Yard Archives |
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| 1937. Brooklyn Navy Yard Archives |
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| ca 2009, via Brownstoner |
The gatehouses were restored to a semblance of their original state by the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation in 2015. The Gatehouse on the right now houses a coffee shop-by-day/whiskey tasting room-by-night run by Kings County Distillery, which is located in the Yard.
The Brooklyn Navy Yard was a neighborhood bustling with activity in the 1940s and 1950s. The streets around it were also the "turf" of an Italian gang called the Sand Street Angels who were around from about 1945-1960.
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