Hall of Gowanus

This story map is designed to let you further explore the Hall of Gowanus artifacts currently exhibited at the Gowanus Canal Conservancy. Through historic and contemporary maps, photographs, timelines, and tools for personal reflection, we encourage you to consider your own experiences, stories, and geographies that are unique to Gowanus, Brooklyn.

Gowanus is undergoing immense change. In 2020 the EPA’s Superfund cleanup and remediation of the Gowanus Canal began. In 2021 a neighborhood rezoning proposal will be submitted for public review, prompting dialogue about future neighborhood development. In order to contextualize these events, we can examine Gowanus’ history of ecology, land use and industrialization. We invite you to learn more about Gowanus via this interactive story map and our Hall of Gowanus exhibition located in Gowanus Canal Conservancy’s window.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, a Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar and writer, states, “every piece of North American land is Indigenous, regardless of whether it has a city on top of it” (2017, 195).

We acknowledge that we are currently inhabiting Lenapehoking, the Munsee term for “where the Lenape dwell,” which encompasses present-day areas of southern New England to the Mid-Atlantic. This land was dispossessed from Indigenous Peoples by European colonizers via treaties and forced removal. The place name Gowanus comes from Gouwane, a Dutch interpretation of the name of a Canarsie sachem. According to Burrow and Wallace’s history of New York City, Gotham, it is estimated around 15,000 Lenape lived in present day New York City upon European arrival, with an additional 30,000 - 50,000 Indigenous peoples in surrounding areas. Eurocentric notions of land ownership influenced the ways in which lands were seized. Historian William Cronon writes that Europeans believed land was private property to be managed by an individual, while Native Americans conceived of land as a shared resource. When considering historic or present day land use in Gowanus, we must acknowledge Lenape history and stories.

Additional Resources: 

-N ative land map  

- Lenape Center  

Maps are often viewed as factual documents that accurately represent the world around us. In reality maps exhibit power. Borders and place names reify authority while silencing alternate interpretations and experiences of space.

Political economist James Scott remarks, “aside from the utter hegemony of the state form today, a great deal of archaeology and history throughout the world is state-sponsored and often amounts to a narcissistic exercise in self-portraiture” (2009, 13).

It’s important to recognize the inherent bias in any map, whether it is a 17th century Dutch rendering or a Google map on your smartphone. Below is a sequence of historical maps of Gowanus, curated and described by community historian Eymund Diegel, which show both the changing landscape and the changing perception of that landscape. The footprint of 543 Union Street is highlighted on each map.

This exhibition was curated by Proteus Gowanus and the Gowanus Canal Conservancy.

Betasamosake Simpson, Leanne. As We Have Always Done. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017.

Burrows, Edwin G. and Mike Wallace. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

“Carroll Street Bridge.” Forgotten New York. May 1, 1999. https://forgotten-ny.com/1999/05/carroll-street-bridge/

Cronon, William. Changes in the Land. New York: Hill and Wang, 1983.

Di Maio, Dina. “The Oyster in New York.” The Gotham Center for New York City History. February 13, 2008. https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/the-oyster-in-new-york

“Dutch Breukelen: Where Brooklyn Began.” Brooklyn Historical Society. October 28, 2015.  https://www.brooklynhistory.org/wpcontent/uploads/Dutch_Breukelen_Curriculum.pdf 

“Empress Tree Seed Pod.” Gowanus Wunderkammer: People’s Archive Program. Accessed April 15, 2021. https://www.gowanuscanalmuseum.org/artifacts/2018/2/17/cannonball-4ajy8-3jmwb-z9ge8-x27nh-wckcr-tykh8-h4ekz-l65xd-58dwn-b47hb-tynma-eegcy-7zd28-2cwb3 

“Ginger Mill.” Red Hook Water Stories.   https://redhookwaterstories.org/exhibits/show/red-hook-s-water-powered-ginge/ginger-mill 

Hubert, Craig. “What Exactly Is the Black Mayonnaise at the Bottom of the Gowanus Canal?” Brownstoner. November 13, 2017.  https://www.brownstoner.com/development/Gowanus-canal-black-mayonnaise-superfund-epa-cleanup-brooklyn/ 

Hynes, Thomas. “Aw Shucks: The Tragic History of New York City Oysters.” Untapped New York.  https://untappedcities.com/2016/02/09/aw-shucks-the-tragic-history-of-new-york-city-oysters/ 

“Infrastructure: Bridges Over the Gowanus Canal.” New York City DOT. Accessed April 15, 2021. https://www1.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/infrastructure/bridges-gowanus.shtml

“Kentile Floors, 1999.” Forgotten New York. April 10, 2017.  https://forgotten-ny.com /2017/04/kentile-floors-1999/

“Kentile KenFlex Vinyl-Asbestos Floor Tiles Identification Photo Guide.” InspectAPedia.  https://inspectapedia.com/hazmat/Kentile_Vinyl_Asbestos_Tile_List.php 

Konon, Eric. Icon: Kentile Floors LLC. Flickr. March 28, 2013.  https://www.flickr.com/photos/ekonon/8620199647/ 

Kurlansky, Mark. “The Big Oyster.” The New York Times. March 5, 2006.  https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/05/books/chapters/the-big-oyster.html 

Mauney, Matt. “Kentile Floors.” Asbestos.com.  https://www.asbestos.com/companies/kentile-floors/ 

Scott, James C. The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia. Yale University Press, 2009.  http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1njkkx . 

“The Hall of Gowanus.” Proteus Gowanus.  http://proteusgowanus.org/proteus-gowanus-archive/hall-of-the-gowanus/index.html?mc_cid=438ea06d9a&mc_eid=6639de2c6a 

Young, Michelle. “The Carroll Street Bridge One of the Last Wooden Bridges in NYC for Cars.” Untapped New York. Accessed April 15, 2021.  https://untappedcities.com/2021/03/25/carroll-street-bridge-gowanus-brooklyn/