turning left on Plymouth Street, look across the Jay–Plymouth intersection (to your right) to the redbrick building with an arched doorway on Jay. It was built in 1891 for Masury Paint, which patented the can with a thin pryable lid that we think of as a standard paint can. Masury’s invention made it possible to sell ready-made paint, and the company maintained an exclusive patent on it for 21 years. Follow the old rail tracks from Jay to the left on Plymouth. #185, built for the Arbuckle Brothers in 1900, was used in the ’40s and ’50s for offices of Brillo (its scouring-pad factory was on John Street). The tall building at #195 was erected in 1892 as the metal spinning and plating plant of S. Sternau & Co., which invented a small burner called a Sternau—eventually spelled Sterno.
This is truly dumbo—down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass—on Pearl Street
Turn right on Bridge Street, as the rail tracks do. They go all the way into the lobby of the residential conversion at #37—originally built for Kirkman & Son’s fat storage. They were soap makers, and the adjacent building was their glycerin plant. These were 1910s additions to their main facility across the street, #50, which was designed in 1894 by William Tubby, a leading residential architect of the late 19th century.
Turn left at Front Street, entering Vinegar Hill. The red garage door on the left is on a former firehouse, now a residence, built around 1855. #231–233 dates to 1908 and was designed by Tubby for a Benjamin Moore paint factory. It’s followed by a row of Greek Revival brick townhouses. Most of them date to the 1840s; the second pair may have been built as early as the 1830s.
Vinegar Hill originated as a working-class community of Navy Yard employees and people who served as domestics in Brooklyn Heights. Today it’s a 19th-century village scrunched between a power plant, a highway, and a housing project. Vinegar Hill’s residents were predominately Irish throughout the 1800s, and local landowner John Jackson named it after a battle of Irish independence.
Turn left on Gold Street. These Greek Revival brick rowhouses on the right, including those at each end with street-level storefronts, are from the 1840s.
Turn right on Water Street. Go left at Hudson Avenue, then promptly right on Evans Street. At the end on your right is a gated property with a lawn and a pretty white mansion—looks more like a Hamptons estate than something you’d find in the city. This now privately owned house was built in 1806 for the Brooklyn Navy Yard commandant and designed by the same architect as the United States Capitol.
Go left on Little Street, which abuts the decommissioned but once mightily important Navy Yard. Shipbuilder John Jackson, who’s considered the founder of Vinegar Hill, sold land to the US government in 1801 that was developed into the Navy Yard—which operated until 1966 and still has a few active dry docks (see page 140 for more about it). Vinegar Hill turned into a red-light district during the Navy Yard’s tenure, earning the nickname Hell’s Half Acre.
Turn left on Plymouth, then left on Hudson, the main drag of Vinegar Hill. Original ownership of both corner buildings has been traced to John Jackson’s family: #49 may have been built as early as 1801. On the next block, Vinegar Hill House (#72) was the only retail business in the neighborhood when it opened in 2008—all these other storefronts were vacant or converted to residential. Opposite it, the three buildings between vacant lots have stood since 1817 and were originally Jackson property.
Continue on Hudson as it turns into Navy Street. A wonderful mural on your left illustrates neighborhood and Navy Yard history. Enter the Navy Yard after one more block, opposite Sands Street. Inside the gatehouse on your right is the tasting room of the
Go back on Navy to York, make a left, and return to the F train at Jay Street.
Points of Interest
Powerhouse Arena 28 Adams St.; 718-666-3049, powerhousearena.com
Smack Mellon 92 Plymouth St.; 718-834-8761, smackmellon.org
Brooklyn Roasting Company 25 Jay St.; 718-514-2874, brooklynroasting.com
GK Arts Center 29 Jay St.; 212-600-0047, gkartscenter.org
Kings County Distillery Brooklyn Navy Yard gatehouse, 299 Sands St.; 347-689-4180, kingscountydistillery.com
Rooftop Reds Brooklyn Navy Yard, Building 275; 571-327-3578, rooftopreds.com
Downtown
4
Downtown:
Civic Hub of a Metropolis
Above: Borough Hall (center) flanked by early skyscrapers on Court Street
BOUNDARIES: Johnson St., Flatbush Ave. Extension, State St., Clinton St.
DISTANCE:
