When we were on our house search we tended to lean towards waterfront neighborhoods such as Vinegar Hill, DUMBO, City Island, Red Hook, Gowanus, etc... The one thing that we kept seeing were brick buildings with these wrought iron stars on them. There are some buildings with them near my studio on West Street in Manhattan's Meatpacking district as well. We even considered buying a building with stars across from the Brooklyn Navy Yard (we passed because the area was too isolated). I did a little research and I found out that the stars actually hold the brick onto the facade. Why stars? We are not sure why but they do look good. I snapped these pictures near the St. George ferry terminal. I'm unsure as to what these red balls are but they appear to be some type of nautical anchor. Sadly, the buildings behind this brick wall near the water are derelict. The one on the right looks similar to the Sailor's Houses in Snug Harbor. This is going to be the lighthouse museum area but why are these buildings left open to the elements? They should at least be boarded up. This is a major problem with city owned historic properties. They won't sell them but they don't take care of them either. If anyone has any more insight on the brick stars or red balls let us know.
Dear Prodigal Borough,
ReplyDeleteI believe that the red balls are marine mines. I lived near a harbour in Northern Ireland as I child and these formerly deadly objects were fitted with coin slots that we would put pennies in. The funds went to retired seamen.
Joan Harrison, Stapelton.
The red balls appear to be mooring buoys.
ReplyDeleteThe history of that location: it was the Coast Guard Hqtrs. They moved to Governor's Is. when the Army moved out - late 60's.
That area was always filled with assorted buoys and markers.
See: St. George Civic Assoc - info on Esplanade and Coast Guard Station:
www.preserve.org/stgeorge/stgeorge.htm
I went thru there in 2001. There's a courtyard with chess/checker tables affixed to the ground. I don't know what they've done to the property since then.
Here's info on the museum plans. See Project Overview. It has layouts and identifies items:
http://www.lighthousemuseum.org/
The stars:
To support a masonry wall - actually you have two walls; tie-rods, with turnbuckles, are used to prevent the walls from buckling outward.
The stars are cast iron, ornamental, anchor plates. Here are some examples:
http://www.adkinsantiques.com/plugins/MivaMerchants/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=04
There are other designs, e.g. Fleur-de-lis design, rounds, squares, etc.