U.S. Street, Vinegar Hill
From the Facebook site Old NYC Photo Dump comes this image of U.S. Street looking north from Little Street. This intersection no longer exists, but I know where it was. As a kid I pored over street guides and atlases while the other kids were out playing stickball. One of the areas I concentrated on is now called DUMBO and its eastern end, Vinegar Hill. There are, or were, a number of hidden streets and alleys rattling around in that attic, most of them now built over. U.S. Street was one of them.
This early Hagstrom shows the dead end U.S. Street angling east from Little Street at Marshall. By the 1960s, everything north of John Street had been taken over by Con Edison, which protects the territory like Fort Knox; I have never been in there. Little Street has now been cut back to one block between Evans and Plymouth.
This 1929 Belcher Hyde excerpt shows U.S. Street (I do not believe it was ever spelled out as “United States Street” with some properties on its south side. The house you see in the top photo is represented by a yellow box.
Even if Con Ed did not occupy the area north of John, U.S. Street no longer exists, as the Red Hook Wastewater Treatment Plant, part of the Navy Yard, now sits where it was.
The plant was designed in 1972 to be a 70 MGD facility, however escalating energy and construction costs made it necessary to re-examine the 1972 design. The design of a 60 MGD plant began in August 1980, and construction began in November 1983. In 1989, the plant began providing full secondary treatment. [NYC.gov]
Kevin Walsh is the webmaster of the award-winning website Forgotten NY, and the author of the books Forgotten New York (HarperCollins, 2006) and also, with the Greater Astoria Historical Society, Forgotten Queens (Arcadia, 2013)
FWIW: The Brooklyn Eagle had an "Old Timers" section. On 10/17/1943 on p. 13, 10/31/1943 at p. 12, and 12/5/1943 at p. 12, several letters were published reminiscing about U.S. St./United States St. (used interchangeably in the letters). Several of the letters refer to the surrounding neighborhood as "Irish Town". The 10/31/1943 letter notes that the street was usurped by the Navy Yard expansion. A Public Notice on 11/4/1939 on p.13 states that private property on "United States Street"was being taken by eminent domain.