Owner | State of New York | Established | Refounded; May 5th, 2015 |
Purpose | Neighborhood | ||
Status | Inhabited |
Before annexation into the 12th Ward of Brooklyn, Red Hook was a separate village. It is named for the red clay soil and the point of land projecting into the East River. The village was settled by the Dutch colonists of New Amsterdam in 1636. Red Hook is part of the area known as South Brooklyn, though it is northwest of the geographic center of the modern borough. Red Hook stands as the most fully reintegrated neighborhood in the Safe Zone — barring the extensively redesigned Yamagato Park. It is home to the Safe Zone Municipal Building and is ostensibly the seat of government for the resettling of New York City. As such, Red Hook is one of the few neighborhoods not to suffer rolling brown-outs, though unscheduled power outages due to the poor condition of the electrical infrastructure are still common. Most of Red Hook is comprised of converted factories, mill buildings, and other brick and stone structures dating back to the turn of the century.