William Beard (entrepreneur)

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William Beard (* 1806 ; † 1886 ) was an entrepreneur who immigrated to the United States from Ireland , who greatly changed and shaped the appearance and importance of Red Hook , now a district of Brooklyn (NY), in the 19th century and for the Perhaps the most significant public building builders in Brooklyn this time is held.

Act

The Irish-born William Beard came to the United States in 1825, where he first worked for a few years with the design and construction of railroads. During this time he became more and more interested in another transport method - transport by ship. He turned his attention to the Brooklyn riverside issue.

In 1851, Beard began expanding the Erie Bassin basin in Red Hook, which provided a convenient connection to the northbound trade route Erie Canal . It was a newly built harbor with breakwaters, not far from the Atlantic Basin in southern Brooklyn, which was formed in 1941, but it became much larger. The expansion was completed in 1864.

The port expansion accommodated a larger number of piers, dry docks and increasingly large warehouses and warehouses. The largest warehouse was the Red Hook Stores, construction of which began in 18969 and which began operating along with other warehouses around the Erie Basin in the early 1870s. The Erie Basin port was becoming the busiest of all Brooklyn ports at the time.

William Beard died in 1886.

William Beard's son, William H. Beard (1839-1893), first worked with his father on several construction projects in Red Hook, later he developed interests in local and national politics and worked as a politician.

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Leonard Benardo, Jennifer Weiss: Brooklyn by Name: How the Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks, Bridges, and More Got Their Names , New York University Press, New York 2006, online (in part) on: books.google.de / ... , p. 59
  2. a b c The History of King Cotton and the Red Hook Stores , in Red Hook Waterfront from July 30, 2015, online at: redhookwaterfront.com/2015/07 / ...
  3. a b How did Red Hook and the Buttermilk Channel get their names? In Red Hook Waterfront, August 25, 2015 online at: redhookwaterfront.com/2015/08 / ... .
  4. Fairway Market: Red Hook's Favorite Destination , in Red Hook Waterfront on February 16, 2016, online at: redhookwaterfront.com/2016/02 / ...