Comments on: Wallabout Market

By: George Henry

George Henry — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:24:08 +0000

My g-g-g-g-grandfather John Henry and his son William had a ropewalk and heckeling loft in Williamsburg near the approach to the Wnsbg Bridge. Dated approx 1815-30
and many of my ancestors talked of Wallabout mkt. It is assumed the ropewalk was purchased to be demolished as it straddled the planned development of blocks near the river and the construction of the bridge. If you have any info I would be very interested.

By: C

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:55:36 +0000

During a story, my grandmother (born 1899) mentioned that someone had called her “a Wallabout Market dock rat.” Must have been a prominent feature in her day.

By: Joseph Fullman

Joseph Fullman — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 20:31:28 +0000

When I lived there I always felt like a big chunk of neighborhood was somehow missing. And now photographic proof! It’s difficult to imagine how many times the sliver of a neighborhood that’s left has been requisitioned and repurposed over the past 400 years. It would be so nice if the Navy Yard still contained a nice market, definitely seems like a lot of ‘Vinegar Hill Adjacent’ waterfront is squandered in the way the Navy Yard complex is presently used.
In 2007 I lived a block from the Navy Yard on Cumberland Street. There are only two blocks North of Park Ave/The BQE/Walt Whitman Houses and they were/are almost completely devoid of restaurants, delis, laundromats… really anything.
The lack of ’stuff’ definitely does more to kill the quality of life than the BQE, methadone clinic(s), power plant, or being surrounded by half-empty decaying Housing Projects on 3 sides. Consequently, most people do all that they can to avoid living there. Conceptually… it would be a very nice place to live, if it had ’stuff.’