Colonization The native
Lenape referred to the region as , meaning a high point of sandy soil. The village was settled by Dutch colonists of
New Amsterdam in 1636, and named , after the red clay soil and the point of land projecting into the
Upper New York Bay. In Dutch, means "point" or "corner", and not the English hook (, something curved or bent). The actual of Red Hook was a point on an island that stuck out into Upper New York Bay at today's Dikeman Street west of Ferris Street. In 1657, became part of the Town of Brooklyn. Rapelye Street in Red Hook commemorates the beginnings of one of
New Amsterdam's earliest families, the Rapelje clan, descended from the first European child born in the new Dutch settlement in the
New World,
Sarah Rapelje. She was born near
Wallabout Bay, which later became the site of the New York (Brooklyn) Naval Shipyard. A couple of decades after the birth of his daughter Sarah,
Joris Jansen Rapelje removed to Brooklyn, where he was one of the
Council of twelve men, and where he was soon joined by son-in-law
Hans Hansen Bergen. Rapelye Street in Red Hook is named for Rapelje and his descendants, who lived in Brooklyn for centuries.
American Revolution During the
Battle of Brooklyn (also known as the Battle of Long Island),
Fort Defiance was constructed on the
hoek. It is shown on a map called "a Map of the Environs of Brooklyn" drawn in 1780 by Loyalist engineer George S. Sproule. The Sproule map shows that the Fort Defiance complex consisted of three redoubts on a small island connected by trenches, with an earthwork on the island's south side to defend against a landing. The entire earthwork was about long and covered the entire island. The three redoubts covered an area about by . The two principal earthworks were about by , and the tertiary one was about by . Maps from Sproule and
Bernard Ratzer show that Red Hook was a low-lying area full of tidal mill ponds created by the Dutch. General
Israel Putnam came to New York on April 4, 1776, to assess the state of its defenses and strengthen them. Among the works initiated were forts on
Governor's Island and Red Hook, facing the bay. On April 10, one thousand Continentals took possession of both points and began constructing Fort Defiance which mounted one
three pounder cannon and four eighteen pounders. The cannons were to be fired over the tops of the fort's walls. In May,
George Washington described it as "small but exceedingly strong". On July 5, General
Nathanael Greene called it "a post of vast importance" and, three days later,
Col. Varnum's regiment joined its garrison. On July 12, the British frigates
Rose and
Phoenix and the schooner
Tyrol ran the gauntlet past Defiance and the stronger Governor's Island works without firing a shot, and got all the way to
Tappan Zee. They stayed there for over a month, beating off harassing attacks, and finally returned to
Staten Island on August 18. Another act of the Legislature in 1867 allowed the canal to be deepened further. With the completion of the creek's dredging, Red Hook became an industrial hub, seeing up to 26,000 ships per year. By the early 20th century, Red Hook had gained a reputation of decay, with organized crime having started to develop in the area. From the 1920s on, many poor and unemployed Norwegians, mostly former sailors, were living in the area in what they called
Ørkenen Sur ("The Bitter Desert") around places like Hamilton Avenue and Gospel Hill. In 2015,
NRK made a documentary about it in Norwegian. There is also an old documentary film about this.
Investment and decline In the 1930s, the area was poor, and the site of the current
Red Hook Houses was the site of a shack city for the homeless called a "
Hooverville". Officials began looking to revitalize Red Hook at that time. The
Red Hook Play Center and Red Hook Recreational Area opened in 1936 and 1940, respectively. In the 1990s,
Life magazine named Red Hook as one of the "worst" neighborhoods in the United States and as "the
crack capital of America". Patrick Daly, the principal of P.S. 15 in Red Hook, was killed in 1992 in the crossfire of a drug-related shooting while looking for a pupil who had left his school. The school was later renamed the Patrick Daly School after him, as he was beloved within the school. In 2010, Red Hook's first community newspaper,
The Red Hook Star-Revue, began publication. Red Hook was heavily damaged by
Hurricane Sandy in 2012, two years later. In 2024, the New York City government took over about of land on Red Hook's waterfront, with plans to redevelop it. In September 2025, a community task force voted 17–8 to approve the $3.5 billion
Brooklyn Marine Terminal Vision Plan, which calls for up to 6,000 apartments (40 percent permanently affordable), a modernized 60-acre all-electric port terminal, approximately of public open space, and a $200 million investment in the nearby
Red Hook Houses. The plan was approved through a general project plan process rather than the standard
Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, which drew opposition from some community members and local organizations. The
Mary A. Whalen and
Lehigh Valley Railroad Barge No. 79 are listed on the
National Register of Historic Places. ==Location==