Richards, Daniel, b. ca. 1795

The Atlantic Dock Company was the brain-child of Daniel Richards, who in 1839 began to develop the Brooklyn harbor shoreline by erecting a contained set of docks, warehouses, and a basin for deep water ships in the area presently known as Red Hook and South Brooklyn. The Atlantic Dock Company was chartered by New York State on May 6, 1840 and began excavation and construction, capitalized at one million dollars. Richards became secretary of the company and James De Peyster Ogden became the first president. In present day Brooklyn, Richards Street now runs from north to south and extends from Hamilton Avenue to Beard Street in Red Hook. Robert Ernst's Immigrant Life in New York City, 1825-1863 (1949) describes the immigrant labor force attracted to the docks.

Construction of the first docks commenced on June 3, 1841 and stone warehouses were begun in 1844. Col. Richards erected in 1846 a grain elevator operated by steam, the first of its kind in the New York port. James S. T. Stranahan, unmentioned in the collection, took charge of work on the docks and by 1851 had purchased a controlling interest in the company and became its president. The original finding aid noted that the company was listed in Brooklyn city directories and was in liquidation in 1922, per Polk's Directory of Brooklyn and Queens.

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