The Shrinking Smokestacks in Vinegar Hill
September 18th, 2006
It’s a sad thing to see something that’s been around for 75 years taken down floor by floor, especially when the structures are as cool as the four aligned smokestacks in Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn. Two smokestacks at the ConEd plant are coming down slowly. As mentioned in a NY Times story on August 6, 2006, ConEd is dismantling three of the five stacks. “Only two are needed now because the plant is using fewer boilers to generate steam. The job will take about four months but will begin to alter the view immediately.”
Click photo for close-up. ConEd Plant Smokestacks, Vinegar Hill, August 22, 2006
Click photo for close-up. ConEd Plant Smokestacks, Vinegar Hill, September 17, 2006
Photo taken on 8/22/06
Photo taken on 9/17/06
The story shows Nicholas Evans-Cato’s painting of the Brooklyn waterfront, a panorama that includes the Williamsburg Bridge, several new condominium buildings and a quintet of towering brick smokestacks from the ConEd Hudson Avenue Generating Station on the edge of Vinegar Hill.
Click photo for close-up. Nicholas Evans-Cato, Amphitheatre, oil on linen, 42 x 70″, 2006
For those who are interested in viewing his painting, there is a showing at the George Billis Gallery (info below). Soon enough, we will only have his painting and our memories of the smokestacks. In the meantime if you want to see the smokestacks before they’re gone, hurry!
Nicholas Evans-Cato at George Billis Gallery NY
October 10 - November 11, 2006
Reception: Thursday, October 12, 6 - 8 PM
Georgebillis.com
511 West 25th Street, New York, NY
Related: Artist Paints Dumbo Landscape, DumboNYC.com
6 Responses to “The Shrinking Smokestacks in Vinegar Hill”
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September 18th, 2006 at 4:29 pm
Thank you for these wonderful sequential photos. Please continue to chronicle the deconstruction of two of Vinegar Hill’s five fingers.
September 18th, 2006 at 9:41 pm
not to sound insensitive, but, uh…nostalgic about ConEd smokestacks?
September 19th, 2006 at 7:20 am
Yes, thanks for the wonderful images–especially the Evans-Cato work, wow. I do agree that the removal of these ought not be cause for lamentation. Indeed, I think it would be wonderful to see the decommission of the entire plant–what a boon for Vinegar Hill to have its own waterfront park…Well, we can dream, can’t we?
September 19th, 2006 at 9:50 am
I used to live on 34th street and watched the ConEd stacks go down over there. It wasn’t fun to watch the construction but I guess it’s less polution.
February 6th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
I think the polution is even worse in those developing countries, aren’t they?
May 12th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
my sentiments exactly rascal
wouldn it be great to have a VH waterfront???