Photos: Back when the end of Flatbush looked like a scene in a Steinbeck novel
The southern portion of Barren Island, where a smoke stack remains from the horse disposal and glue factory. July 4, 1931. Via NYPL
Where Flatbush stops and Brooklyn juts into Jamaica Bay before abruptly ending a waterway away from where the Rockaway begin, there is a place which used to be known as Barren Island. It’s not an island, anymore, as it’s adjoined to the mainland by the Marine Park Golf Course and the Belt Parkway, but it certainly feels isolated and barren, way out there on the water. Today it is better known as Dead Horse Bay, or Bottle Beach, names which, despite their strangeness, have very literal inspirations – namely, a former area glue factory and tons and tons of bottles from a landfill capped over 100 years ago.
It’s a place to trek to and sit in awe of Brooklyn’s battered coastline, a place which is still wild and untamed and within walking distance of Jacob Riis Park.
In the 1930s, though, the area was a different world, one totally unrecognizable as Brooklyn and more similar to a scene out of a Steinbeck novel. Land is endless, the people small in comparison, Barren Island as a whole a pastoral scene of another world.
The east shore of Barren Island, north from the foot of Hassock Street. In the distance, a disposal plant for the conversion of dead animals into glue. July 5, 1931. Via NYPLBathers of Barren Island, near the dyke for the new airport fill. July 5, 1931. Via NYPLThe northern part of Barren Island, showing the sand dunes near Floyd Bennet Field. July 5, 1931. Via NYPLThe ‘Coffee Pot’ restaurant, across Flatbush Ave. from Floyd Bennett Field. July 5, 1931. Via NYPLBarren Island, in Jamaica Bay, Brooklyn. In the background are the hangars and Administration Building of Floyd Bennet Field. July 4, 1937. Via NYPLLooking north on Barren Island, showing the north side of the main street and a pastoral scene in the foreground. April 21, 1931. Via NYPLBarren Island’s Public School No. 120. June 22, 1931. Via NYPL Barren Island. July 24, 1937. Via NYPLThe northern section of Barren Island, near Flatbush Ave., showing the former Protestant church. April 21, 1931. The church was demolished by 1936, to make way for a new park. Via NYPL