9. In the 1800s, the Gowanus Area Was a Slum

The book Gowanus: Brooklyn’s Curious Canal notes the many efforts of private citizens to transform the Gowanus Creek and environs. In 1856, akin to a modern day slum tour, New York journalists were taken to see the slums of Gowanus in horse-drawn carriages. The neighborhoods teemed with European, particularly Irish, immigrants working within walking distance at the Red Hook docks. In rains, raw sewage would flood the shanties of the slums.
Get your tickets for this Thursday’s talk by Joseph Alexiou, author of Gowanus: Brooklyn’s Curious Canal at the Museum of the City of New York here.