Red Hook Park

The Sol Goldman Play Center, within the block bounded by Bay, Henry, Lorraine and Clinton Streets, consists of a brick bathhouse and two pools.

The block to the northwest, bounded by Creamer, Court, Bay, and Clinton Streets, contains soccer field 6 and a running track.

[6][7] The Bush-Clinton Playground, containing several basketball courts and a play area, is north of the pool adjacent to Red Hook Houses.

[10] The Red Hook Play Center consists of the Sol Goldman Pool and Bathhouse, which are on the city block bounded clockwise from south by Bay, Henry, Lorraine and Clinton Streets.

[11] The bathhouse contains a facade of brick in Flemish bond and is shaped in a "C" with a 1+1⁄2-story central pavilion, flanked by west and east wings that are separated from the street by a grass strip.

The top of the building facade is wrapped with a simple cast-stone band, while the bottom sits on a water table of granite blocks.

[10] A curving fence with brick piers, as well as a planted glass strip, runs around the western and eastern sides of the pool complex.

A one-story comfort station is on the northwestern corner of the block; it is slightly above street level and formerly had men's and women's restrooms.

[27] The specific site of the Red Hook Recreation Area was originally intended as a terminal for the Marginal Elevated Railway, a shortline railroad connecting the industries along the Brooklyn waterfront.

[31] The city retained ownership of some 40 acres (16 ha) at the site of the unbuilt terminal, and was looking to sell and subdivide the land by 1930,[32] to some opposition.

[33][34] North of the abandoned terminal, the block bounded by Bay, Lorraine, Henry, and Clinton Streets was used as a baseball field from 1915 to about 1929.

[8] In 1934, mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia nominated Robert Moses to become commissioner of a unified New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

At the time, the United States was experiencing the Great Depression; immediately after La Guardia won the 1933 election, Moses began to write "a plan for putting 80,000 men to work on 1,700 relief projects".

[42][43] The pools would be built using funds from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a federal agency created as part of the New Deal to combat the Depression's negative effects.

Moses, along with architects Aymar Embury II and Gilmore David Clarke, created a common design for each of the 11 proposed aquatic centers.

Each location was to have distinct pools for diving, swimming, and wading; bleachers and viewing areas; and bathhouses with locker rooms that could be used as gymnasiums.

The pools were to have several common features, such as a minimum 55-yard (50 m) length, underwater lighting, heating, filtration, and low-cost construction materials.

To fit the requirement for cheap materials, each building would be built using elements of the Streamline Moderne and Classical architectural styles.

[45][46] Unlike most projects of the era, the Red Hook Pool and Recreation Area would be constructed as a completely new facility, with the park to be developed later.

[49][51] Moses rejected this land transfer on June 22 to protest the fact that, under the terms of the grant, the plot could be taken back on thirty days' notice.

[56] The architects submitted plans for the Red Hook Play Center to the New York City Department of Buildings in early 1936.

[58] By that June, the wading pool's completion was delayed because staff had been diverted to the construction of facilities at Jacob Riis Park.

[62] According to a NYC Parks press release, the permanent facilities at the Red Hook Recreation Center were completed in time for the 1937 summer season.

[76] NYC Parks continued to face financial shortfalls in the coming years, and the pools retained a reputation for high crime.

[79][80] In conjunction with the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the government of Norway donated a 45-by-65-foot (14 by 20 m) soccer field to Red Hook Park.

[81] Additionally, in the 1990s, a practice called "whirlpooling" became common in New York City pools such as Red Hook Park, wherein women would be inappropriately fondled by teenage boys.

[82][83] By the turn of the century, crimes such as sexual assaults had decreased in parks citywide due to increased security.

[2][87] The city's health and parks departments tested soil samples on the block between Bay, Hicks, Lorraine, and Henry Streets in early 2012.

[90][101] NYC Parks began looking for architects to redesign the recreation center in 2021; at the time, some of the damage from Hurricane Sandy had still not been fixed.

[102] The recreation center's boiler room was damaged in late 2021 during Hurricane Ida, forcing an indefinite closure of the facility.

Sol Goldman Play Center
Grain storage facility next to the southern part of Red Hook Park