11 Most Endangered Historic Places

Brooklyn's Industrial Waterfront

Year Listed: 2007
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Threat: Development, Poor Public Policy

Brooklyn's Industrial Waterfront was on the 2007 list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

Credit: National Trust for Historic Preservation

Significance

Once a booming 19th-century industrial waterfront supported by generation of immigrants, Brooklyn's heritage is at risk as historic dockyards and factories are being demolished by developers anxious to cash in on the area's newly hip status. For more than a century, the New York City region was one of this country’s dominant manufacturing hubs. Due to its location on the East River and the New York Harbor, Brooklyn was the city’s industrial center with scores of maritime operations, factories, warehouses and sugar refineries. In the second half of the twentieth century, industry declined, and what’s left of that striking architectural and historical legacy is now at risk. Also at risk are the places that make Brooklyn work, the buildings and sites that house manufacturing and industrial jobs.