On this garbage dump in Brooklyn, the American dream came to an end for many Norwegians.
During the interwar period, some Norwegian immigrants in New York lived here. They were at the bottom of the social ladder, and many drank themselves to death.(Photo: Bergen Maritime Museum)
(New York): Today, there's hardly any trace left of the old slum by the harbour in Red Hook. On a large artificial turf field, secondary school students are getting ready for a football match.
Yet the area’s history stands in sharp contrast to the green, well-kept field.
Alcoholism, garbage, and simple shacks. Conditions were miserable for the Norwegians who settled in what became known as the Desert Sur in Brooklyn. It was part of a garbage dump on a railway site in the harbour area of Red Hook.
How did things go so wrong for the Norwegians who had crossed the ocean chasing a better life in America?
This photo of the Desert Sur was taken sometime between 1929 and 1935. Garbage and simple shacks – while the large silo towers at the edge of the harbour.(Photo: Bergen Maritime Museum)
The area looks completely different today. The old silo has seen major changes.(Photo: Nina Kristiansen)
Hundreds of Norwegians in poverty
Annonse
Several hundred Norwegian immigrants once lived here. In the book Ørkenen Sur (The Desert Sur), authors Thor Gotaas and Roger Kvarsvik describe it as a camp for the homeless, a shantytown in the 1920s and 1930s.
While many Norwegians experienced better living conditions in the US, this was not the case for everyone. The Desert Sur became home to those who didn't make it. They were at the bottom of the social ladder, having fallen out of society.
For many, their situation stemmed from crises in international shipping, the authors explain. The 1930s were marked by economic hardship.
Many shipping companies went bankrupt. Seamen across the world lost their jobs. Many Norwegian sailors returned home, but not all could afford to. For those stranded in Brooklyn, the consequences were often fatal.
200 years since the first emigrants left
In 2025 it will be 200 years since the first Norwegian emigrants travelled to the USA. Science Norway's reporting trip has been made possible through support from the Fritt Ord Foundation. Science Norway has full editorial freedom.
Sought shelter in pipes and between barrels
The Norwegian slum existed during America's Prohibition era, which lasted from 1920 to 1933. In the absence of legal liquor, people often drank dangerous, homemade alcohol.
The place was steeped in alcohol abuse. In 1930, eight people died after drinking wood alcohol containing methanol – the deadliest drinking incident in the history of the Norwegian slum.
Despite hunger and hardship, humour and self-irony endured in Desert Sur. Yet so did the shame of living there, write Gotaas and Kvarsvik.
They preferred to use nicknames instead of their real names. They went by names like the Count, the Mayor, and the Fireman.
The settlement stood on a municipal lot that served as a landfill, and residents had to be inventive to find shelter from the wind and cold.
They took refuge under sheets of metal, inside large pipes, built earthen huts, and used empty barrels to construct shacks.
The Norwegians who made it
But not all Norwegians who came to New York ended up in despair. Most were hardworking and not picky about the kinds of jobs they took, according to historian Victoria Hofmo.
"They were entrepreneurs. Haven't Norwegians always been that way?" she says.
Annonse
For years, Hofmo has researched and shared the stories of Norwegian immigrants in New York. She runs the Scandinavian East Coast Museum.
Many Norwegians worked in the docks of Brooklyn, including the harbour in Sunset Park.
It was important for New York, says Hofmo.
Victoria Hofmo shows off Sunset Park – a harbour district in Brooklyn, New York, once bustling with Norwegians. In the background, you can see Brooklyn Army Terminal.(Photo: Anders Moen Kaste)
In the harbours of Brooklyn, many Norwegians worked during the 1800s and 1900s. In the background, you can glimpse Manhattan.(Photo: George Willoughby / University of Bergen Library)
A maritime nation
"Norwegian immigrants were a diverse group," says Hofmo.
They were sailors, construction workers, skilled carpenters – and some were also owners, according to Hofmo.
She believes their roles in America reflected Norway's status as a maritime nation in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 1870s, Norway was the world's third-largest maritime nation, and by the late 1930s, the fourth.
"They managed to stay competitive in harbour trade in Norway long after steamships arrived. That's how skilled they were," she says.
The Norwegian shipping industry entered a crisis during this period, due to a reluctance to transition from sail to steam, according to the Great Norwegian Encyclopedia.
The Norwegian engineer Truls Wilson lived and worked in the US for several years. He was hardly a typical immigrant as he mingled with the upper class. He later returned to his hometown of Bergen.(Photo: Truls Wiel Wilson / University of Bergen Library)
Built to last
"Without the Norwegian immigrants, I don't think this would have happened," says Hofmo, gazing out over the harbour district of Sunset Park in Brooklyn.
She believes the Norwegians who stayed in New York were much like those who settled in the Midwest to farm.
"Norwegians were resilient, no matter where they were," says Hofmo.
When things fell apart, they started over. They looked after their communities and each other, including by building hospitals. According to Hofmo, the spirit of dugnad (collective volunteer effort) was alive in the Norwegian community.
Built hospitals in Brooklyn
Elizabeth Fedde took the initiative to establish hospitals in Norwegian areas in the US.(Photo: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons)
The Norwegian deaconess Elizabeth Fedde played a key role in creating healthcare services for Norwegians in New York.
She was the first Norwegian deaconess in America. Just nine days after arriving in Brooklyn in 1883, she joined forces with pastors and others to found the Norwegian Relief Society, according to the Great Norwegian Encyclopedia. Together, they began to provide healthcare for those in need.
In 1889, the Norwegian hospital opened with 30 beds.
When Fedde returned to Norway 13 years later, she had helped establish Norwegian hospitals in Brooklyn, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Terrible working conditions
Workers in New York were often unionised, and the labour unions successfully fought for better working conditions. This also benefited other immigrants in New York.
That's according to Daniel J. Walkowitz, professor emeritus at New York University.
The unions pushed for rent and food price regulations.
"But the working conditions were pretty terrible," says Walkowitz.
Over time, however, unions managed to win ten- and eight-hour workdays, as well as access to education and summer camps for their children.
Norwegians were known as hardworking and not picky about the jobs they took, says Hofmo. But according to Walkowitz, they also had their weaknesses.
Bosses were worried about workers who got drunk on Sundays, says Professor Daniel J. Walkowitz.(Photo: Anders Moen Kaste)
Bosses worried about Saint Monday
"They drank a lot," says Walkowitz.
It was a real problem, often tied to poor working conditions. Walkowitz points out that the Irish and other immigrant groups faced the same issue.
"Bosses were always worried about what's called Saint Monday. It's the Monday you skip work because you were drunk on Sunday," he says.
Ethnic groups had their own neighbourhoods
"All ethnic groups in New York City had their own neighbourhoods. The Bay Ridge area in Brooklyn was once a very Norwegian neighbourhood," says Robert Snyder.
Many of the workers from Sunset Park lived there.
Snyder, professor emeritus of journalism and history at Rutgers University Newark, notes that Bay Ridge is no longer Norwegian – today, it's home to people from the Middle East.
A Norwegian woman stands atop the Brooklyn Bridge in 1905.(Photo: Rugsveen, Johan Undset / Museums of North Østerdal)
Moved to the suburbs
Snyder remembers biking through Brooklyn in the 1990s and stopping in Bay Ridge, where he bought fish pudding from a Norwegian delicatessen. He was curious and wanted to try it.
The fish pudding was okay, says Snyder:
Professor Robert Snyder can no longer buy Norwegian fish pudding in Bay Ridge.(Photo: Anders Moen Kaste)
"But that Norwegian world has disappeared."
New immigrants often form enclaves in New York for a time, but eventually, they move out to the suburbs. Then new groups move in, says Snyder.
The same happened to the so-called Lapskaus Boulevard, once a hub for Norwegian-Americans. Today, the street has been revitalised by immigrants from China and the Middle East.
The push for efficiency
American cities grew rapidly in the 1920s, says Professor Kevin Kenny of New York University.
This period, known as the Progressive Era, was marked by social and political reforms aimed at making society more efficient and rational. But these changes could also make life harder for certain groups, Kenny notes.
"Most immigrants settled in the city centres and faced all the difficulties that came with urban poverty," he says.
New York grew dramatically in the early 1900s, bringing major challenges, says Professor Kevin Kenny.(Photo: Anders Moen Kaste)
Things went well for some
By the mid-1930s, it was over. Residents were no longer allowed to live in the Desert Sur, and the shacks were torn down.
Some moved onto nearby private property. Most relocated farther away, and the younger residents who did not have alcohol problems often managed to do well. Others became homeless along the outskirts of the area and rarely lived long lives.
"It was rough around here until quite recently," a local said when asked by Science Norway if he had heard about the Norwegian slum.
He had not. The old poverty in Brooklyn did not disappear – it simply took new forms.
