Admirals Row: Brooklyn Navy Yard’s most famous ‘bando

Published on: October 17th, 2019 | Last updated: October 16, 2019 | Written by: Joseph Anastasio

---

Admiral’s Row was the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s best known Bando. Literally that’s the only reason for this post.

Perhaps that sounds underwhelming, but it’s true. Multiple outlets have covered the history of these buildings in depth. They sat vacant and decaying in full view of Flushing Avenue. Anyone who happened down the street would notice them. This contrasted with the other, better hidden abandoned buildings deeper in the navy yard and away from the public’s eyes. Building 128 is huge, and has a more impressive history if you ask me. The abandoned props, and 9/11 mock up were far more intriguing that Admiral’s Row. And from an explorers point of view, these homes were falling in on themselves, and not all that exciting.

Constructed between the 1860s and 1901, Admiral’s Row was home to the commanding officers of the navy yard. They were occupied right up until the Navy left in 1966. For whatever reason, the Navy retained control of them, and let them rot into the dirt. Finally in 2012 the Navy Yard management bought out the property and demolished all but one of the buildings, which is supposed to be preserved. Over the years preservationist raised quite the fuss over these buildings, but ultimately, they were far, far too advanced in decay to save. And quite literally, the neighborhood needs a supermarket—and that seems like a fair trade and wise reuse of the land. It’s never good to lose historic buildings to ‘demolition by decay’, but of all the outcomes, this isn’t the worst.

At least it’s not becoming another god damned tower for rich people.

If you’re interested in a more detailed history of the Navy Yard, check out my latest book Abandoned Industries of New York Volume 2

Comments

NOTE: It sometimes takes a short while for comments to be approved - unfortunately there's a lot of spam comments that come in. I absolutely love when y'all share personal stories of friends relatives etc who worked in these places. It really helps capture what these places were like before they closed up shop.

If you're feeling salty, argumentative comments completely devoid of facts (supply links to support your argument) will not be published. Got a case to state? come with the details.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.