Gowanus Lounge: Serving Brooklyn

Upcoming: Longshoreman’s Pole to Carroll Gardens Funeral Home

June 30th, 2008 · 1 Comment

ILA Pole

This is a very Carroll Gardens event. The flag pole at the former International Longshoreman’s Association Medical Center–the controversial development known as 340 Court Street that has been a lightening rod for neighborhood hostility–is being moved and rededicated this week. The pole was rescued from the demolition and will be rededicated at the Scotto Funeral Home at 106 1st Place, Corner of Court Street, on Tuesday, July 1. Per an email we got:

On July 1st Scotto Funeral Home and the International Longshoremen’s Association will rededicate the flagpole which formally stood in front of the ILA Medical Center built in 1963 until the buildings demolition this year. Prior to the building’s demolition Mr. John Heyer II approached The Clarett Group with the idea of salvaging the flagpole as a way of memorializing the historic presence the Longshoremen had in the community. Together with Buddy Scotto he arranged for Jabus Construction Corp to donate their time and safely remove and reinstall the flagpole which remained as the last vestige of the former ILA medical center on the site. The Flagpole has since been moved down Court Street and now stands in front of Scotto Funeral Home where a bronze plaque will tell passers by about the link between the flagpole, the Longshoremen and the Neighborhood. Representatives of the International Longshoremen’s Association and a number of its rank-and-file members will participate in the ceremony. Bishop Frank Caggiano, Auxiliary Bishop of Brooklyn will give an invocation and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is scheduled to stop by. The Xavierian High School Band will play the National Anthem as the American flag is raised. The bronze plaque rededicating the flagpole will read: “Generations of longshoreman have worked tirelessly to better the lives of their families, improve their neighborhoods, and bring economic prosperity to Brooklyn, and it is to each and every one of them that this flagpole is dedicated.”

The building site at Court & Union Streets was cleared over a period of months.

Tags: Carroll Gardens

1 response so far ↓

  • 1 alice // Sep 5, 2009 at 8:39 am

    Thank you very much for your great information. These articles about Carroll Gardens. This is very helpful and informative…….. really appreciated. Thanks.