Brooklyn Navy Yard is one of NYC’s largest pieces of intact — though decaying — history. Sprawling over nearly 300 acres, it has both current industrial tenants, and plans are in the works for adaptive reuse projects for some of the buildings. It’s living history, dotted by pockets of contemporary industry.
For this video, we looked for someone who could tell us about the Yard from the perspective of an employee during it’s heyday (or one of them, at least), and came upon Rubena Ross. An employee of the Yard around the time of the second World War, Mrs. Ross toiled in the flag loft for years, earning a comfortable salary that allowed her to purchase not one but two brownstones in Prospect Heights. By pure coincidence, one of those homes, which she had recently sold, is the subject of the 2009 season of PBS’ This Old House.
Of the many beautiful buildings you’ll see in this piece, my favorite had to be the Laboratory Building. A massive structure, it has a top floor containing an amazing greenhouse-like space with a vaulted glass ceiling. Only recently, in Nov. 2008, did the Navy Yard start opening up the medical campus and other parts of the yard to public tours (brochure pdf) — they’re highly recommended.
-Tom Vigliotta, Producer
This episode wouldn’t have been possible without much help from Daniella Romano, Sara Fitzpatrick, and Andrew Kimball of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Janet and Rubena Ross, Ian Ference, Monark, the Brooklyn Historical Society, the David Rumsey Map Collection, and the National Archives. Thanks to Steve Hindy, president and co-founder of the Brooklyn Brewery, for originally sending me in the direction of the Yard.
I love this series. I dread the day you run out of places to uncover. Keep up the great work!
In a sense it is sad indeed for such an historic place to fall vacant such as are many of the buildings shown. Considering all the money simply wasted by the City of New York one wonders why some funding for the restoration of some of those buildings can’t be undertaken. Inmates and convicts can be put to work and in time the grounds could be made to look swell again.
What a shame and all going to waste.
My late father, Cecil K. Young, worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard from 1940 to 1945. He helped build the U.S.S. Iowa and (from the keel, up) the U.S.S. Missouri. During his time there, he worked his way up from being a welder to becoming a Welding Instructor. His major “claim to fame” was his suggestion in 1943 or so of a method to remove stainless steel weld from armor plating using electric carbon arc to melt it down and someone to come immediately behind his “stinger” to “blow it out” using high pressure air.
For this suggestion, he was awarded 250 dollars and got to demonstrate his invention to the Navy Brass at the Yard along with getting a write up and photograph of his invention in the “Shipyard Worker” magazine.
Thanks for having this site and the info about the Navy Yard. I wish dad was still here…he’d no doubt enjoy this piece as well!
Sincerely,
Johnny K. Young
Phoenix, AZ
Does anyone know if the opening scenes of the classic 1949 musical On The Town ( shown on Reel 13 last Saturday ) were filmed in the Navy Yard?
My father, Robert (Bob) McAuley, worked in the payroll department until 1966. Love to hear from his friends.
Hi,
I am working on a documentary about Grand Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who worked as an electrical engineer at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during WW2, and later went on to become a major world religious leader.
Does anyone know anyone who is alive who also worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during WW2? Anyone ever heard from anyone that they knew or saw a bearded rabbi working there?
Also, is there a list anywhere of private engineering firms who did contract work for the Navy Yard?
Thanks
Y Shapiro
My father and grandfather, now both deceased built and operated two cafeterias in the BNY during the war. Think one cafeteria named the Broken Wheel. Anyone remember this.
Thanks for a trip down memory lane!! Both my grandmother, Gertie Kelly Donovan and my great grandmother Mary Kelly worked in “the Yard” as my grandmother called it. Not sure of Mary’s dates of employment or her job. Gertie was employed in the cafeterias for 27 years and worked there until the day they closed in 1964. I was with her that day to help her clear out her belongings and it was a sad sad sight. So many people called “the Yard” home fo so many years. When it closed it was like dividing up a family. I will always remember how my grandmother would curse Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara when he ordered “the Yard” closed!! I was 13 at the time but had visited “the Yard” many times with my grandmother and we always entered and left by the Sands St gate. On each visit she would point to a spot where my mother, Gertrude Donovan Lyons, stood as a child for a picture with Elenore Roosevelt when Mrs. Roosevelt was there to commision a ship. My grandmother was there when the carrier USS Costellation had the devastating fire….she didn’t come home for 3 days and was hospitalized for exaustion afterward. Thanks again for the memories!!!
My great grandfather Jeremiah Flanagan was the senior yardmaster of the Brooklyn Navy Yard at the turm of the last century.I have found that it is very difficult to find anything historical including photos of the yard.It seems that it has been forgotten & nobody really cares abouth the history that was made there.Very sad.
I had only a passing connection to the Navy yard. In 1969, I reported to the Receiving Station at the Navy Yard which was still open for processing Naval Reservists into active duty. I hadn’t realized until now that the rest of the Yard had been closed down. I worked for two weeks at the “Small Store” handing out clothing to sailors needed uniform items. While I was there, they brought in a sailor who had gone UA in Manhattan. He was flanked by two burly Marine Guards (the brig was in the same building on a different deck), and was being shipped out to the fleet. He must have backtalked to the guards as he looked like they had beaten the crap out of him!
Thanks for your tour of parts of the yard I never got to see. Never realized the battleships “Arizona”, and “Missouri” and the carriers “Constellation” and “Intrepid” were built there…
Served aboard the USS Constellation and we spend 2 months in the yard in 1962 after shakedown cruse to GITMO.
Yard seemed to be thriving place then with 3 Navy ships being built there and with the Connie in for work. The Navy Station and the dances were the highlight of the place along with the wonderful people within the area who put up with all the Navy guys on leave.
The city of Brooklin and New York as well as Flatbush where i spent a lot of time were great .
To see the big cranes traveling on the tracks, the other wonders and the yardbirds who were on board every day brings fond thoughts back.
I was given a tour of the Navy Yard by a senior official of the BNY Development Corp about a year ago and found out that a number of businesses are located there for a reason-away from prying eyes of the public as they own trade secrets.
Check out the movie, Sabateur made by Hitchchock…makes reference to the BNY at its height when the USS Missouri (USS Alaska) was manufactured and launched.
All in all, the BNY represents an important period of our country’s history.