Greenpoint Historic District

The site of several large farms in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Greenpoint became one of the most important industrial centers on the eastern seaboard. By the mid-nineteenth century, the area had become a major shipbuilding center. The great ironclad warship, the Monitor, was built in Greenpoint at the Continental Ironworks and launched in January of 1862, two months before it battled the Confederate Merrimack. By the turn of the century, printing, pottery, glass, iron and gas works were established here along with other industries.

In contrast to the residents of Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope, who commuted to work, those who lived in Greenpoint worked in the nearby plants and factories. The neighborhood contains substantial row houses erected for business owners, and more modest row houses and apartments built for factory workers. Most of the buildings were designed by workers utilizing handbooks and have standardized cornices, windows, doors, and other readymade building elements. Rows of Italianate, French Second Empire, neo-Grec and Queen Anne houses often have nearly identical lintels, rails and shutters. Several wood frame houses in the district may have been constructed by ship carpenters.

In addition to row houses, Greenpoint offers fine examples of church architecture in both the Romanesque and Gothic revival styles. Of note are the St. Elias Greek Rite Church in Victorian Gothic, with red and gray voussoirs, and the Church of the Accession, a low ashlar structure reminiscent of an English country church. ©2014