Bay Ridge history buffs have a new leader
The Bay Ridge Historical Society, a group founded the same year the nation celebrated the Bicentennial, has started a new era with the election of a new president. Andrew Gounardes, a lawyer and Bay Ridge civic activist, was chosen to serve as the new president by the organization’s members at a recent meeting.
“I’m very excited. This organization has done a lot of great things. It has become part of the fabric of the community,” Gounardes told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
Gounardes has set an ambitious agenda for his first term as president. One goal is to “make Bay Ridge history come alive” by seeking public recognition of the neighborhood’s historic sites so that average citizens can become aware of the history right in their midst.
Those sites include the Fort Hamilton Army Base, which opened in 1825, the Farrell House, a home on 95th Street built in the Greek Revival style in 1849, and the Fort Hamilton Library, a 1905 structure that is one of the original 21 “Carnegie Libraries,” that were built by in New York City with a grant from the Carnegie Corporation. The corporation, found by steel baron Andrew Carnegie, gave the grant to the city in 1899.