Navy Yard Hospital

U.S. Navy Yard Hospital, on Wallabout Bay, 1857. Flushing Avenue at right. Modern tinting.

By the time this image was published in 1857, the Naval Hospital already had a twenty year legacy of serving America’s enlisted. As virtually the last moment in history when the familiar Brooklyn landmark could be seen rising majestically above the murky yet bucolic arrangement of crested shoreline and wetlands known as Wallabout Bay, it is a rather important view. Very shortly after this, the bay would be filled in, bit by bit, to accommodate the growing Navy Yard, and the lands and buildings surrounding the hospital – once known as the Annex – would be separated no more.

Cannonball Gardens

Northeastern view from inside the Navy Yard, Wallabout Bay and Williamsburgh beyond. 1851.

A romantic, picture-postcard view from inside the Navy Yard in 1851. Note the oxen, presumably for hauling, inside the ship-building shed, and the wonderfully sculptural quality of the cannonball pyramids (one is reminded of today’s annual sculpture installations along the Dumbo waterfront in Brooklyn Bridge Park).

The Navy Yard was indeed a romantic destination for most of the nineteenth century. The following excerpt from a New York Times article in the 1890s offers an evocative glimpse of the location’s appeal:

Navy Yard Dry Dock Works

View east, Navy Yard dry dock works, 1849; Naval Hospital in the background. Modern tinting.

It is today the smallest dry dock at the Navy Yard and is mainly used for tugboats, but at the time it went into full service in 1851, it was regarded as a milestone of 19th Century engineering. It was named a New York City landmark in 1975.

Navy Yard, Water View

An early 1850s view of the Navy Yard from the river, Williamsburgh beyond. Period tinting.

At the close of the eighteenth century the Remsen estate, situated on Wallabout bay and comprising thirty acres of land and thirty-five acres of pond, were purchased together with the bay, mill, and dwelling house by John Jackson from the previous Dutch owners for the sum of $17,000. Jackson established a shipbuilding concern on the land adjacent the bay, and in 1801 the new American government purchased it, along with a 40 acre parcel, for the purposes of a navy yard.

Navy Yard Mortar Battery

Eastern view across Wallabout Bay toward Williamsburgh. Modern tinting.

Judging from the images of the Navy Yard in its early history, the location was as much a tourist destination and an integral part of the local community as it was a military installation. It is not unusual to see throngs of spectators at celebrations and everyday scenes populated with strolling families and courting couples.

This image is part of a series of engravings produced for an 1870 article on the Navy Yard in Harper’s Monthly Magazine. The entire article can be seen here.