The Shrinking Smokestacks in Vinegar Hill

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

14 Comment

  • Thank you for these wonderful sequential photos. Please continue to chronicle the deconstruction of two of Vinegar Hill’s five fingers.

  • Thank you for these wonderful sequential photos. Please continue to chronicle the deconstruction of two of Vinegar Hill’s five fingers.

  • not to sound insensitive, but, uh…nostalgic about ConEd smokestacks?

  • not to sound insensitive, but, uh…nostalgic about ConEd smokestacks?

  • 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?

  • 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?

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • I think the polution is even worse in those developing countries, aren’t they?

  • I think the polution is even worse in those developing countries, aren’t they?

  • my sentiments exactly rascal
    wouldn it be great to have a VH waterfront???

  • my sentiments exactly rascal
    wouldn it be great to have a VH waterfront???

  • 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?

  • 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?