Yes, believe it or not, Mill Basin, the current home of Brooklyn-style McMansions, was once slated to be an industrial hub.
Mill Basin was once an island, called Mill Island. My father used to camp on the island when he was a kid. It was united with the Brooklyn “mainland” when Moses started to build the port. He thought that Jamaica Bay would make a better port, as it has less tidal action.
If anyone is familiar with Mill Basin in the recent past, you would remember that there was a group of 1920’s-style loft buildings (at around Ave. U and East 68th Street or so) that sat incongruously within the suburban-type landscape. These loft buildings were recently torn down to make way for a housing development.
Folks familiar with Mill Basin also know that it is divided into two areas: “old” Mill Basin, on the north side of Ave.U, and “new” Mill Basin to the south. Old Mill Basin was developed in the 1920’s, as housing for the dock workers. New Mill Basin is that part that used to be Mill Island, and the housing there was developed in the 1960’s and afterwards.
Anyone interested in some awesome Hubble pictures? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/09/amazing-new-nasa-images-f_n_280566.html?slidenumber=0#slide_image
I always wondered what Old Mill Basin was.
Sweet Benson! Love these trivia things. Always learn something new!
DUMBO, Benson?
sigh. i will never guess one of these right.
And the answer is……..
Mill Basin!!!!
Yes, believe it or not, Mill Basin, the current home of Brooklyn-style McMansions, was once slated to be an industrial hub.
Mill Basin was once an island, called Mill Island. My father used to camp on the island when he was a kid. It was united with the Brooklyn “mainland” when Moses started to build the port. He thought that Jamaica Bay would make a better port, as it has less tidal action.
If anyone is familiar with Mill Basin in the recent past, you would remember that there was a group of 1920’s-style loft buildings (at around Ave. U and East 68th Street or so) that sat incongruously within the suburban-type landscape. These loft buildings were recently torn down to make way for a housing development.
Folks familiar with Mill Basin also know that it is divided into two areas: “old” Mill Basin, on the north side of Ave.U, and “new” Mill Basin to the south. Old Mill Basin was developed in the 1920’s, as housing for the dock workers. New Mill Basin is that part that used to be Mill Island, and the housing there was developed in the 1960’s and afterwards.
gowanus!!!
Gee. That would’ve been an awful lot of traffic in that somewhat narrow waterway, no?
Canarsie Piers?