How Brooklyn's Neighborhoods Got Their Names

THE NAMES OF THE NEIGHBORHOODS OF BROOKLYN

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How the Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks, Bridges, and More Got Their Names

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At the same time, the number of name changes has increased. In , the parks committee evaluated just 25 proposals over the entire year. Last spring, for example, the City Council renamed 58 streets in the city , many for people who died in the terrorist attacks. Proposals for street renamings begin at the neighborhood level when local residents recommend a street name, usually in honor of a deceased neighborhood figure, to the local community board.

Sometime they circulate petitions to demonstrate support. The community board then approves or rejects the plan. Some community boards are reluctant to rename streets. When "Jerry Orbach Way" failed to pass Manhattan Community Board 5, Orbach's widow Elaine brought the proposal to neighboring Community Board 4, which approved the recommendation to rename the other corner of 53rd Street and 8th Avenue after the actor. Some community boards like to dole out the honors, as chairman of Manhattan Community Board 6's transportation committee Lou Seperky has noted: Whether a struggle or a sneeze, if a community board votes to pass a street renaming proposal, the local council member then brings the recommendation to the Parks and Recreation Committee.

If the committee affirms the proposal, the renaming is submitted to the council for a vote in one of the package bills. When and if the council votes yes, a new sign with the honorary name is erected next to the marker with the current, more mundane, label. The original street names remain on all street maps. So, for example, a new sign for Vonnegut Way would be added to the existing post overlooking the corner of 48th Street and Second Avenue where the writer used to walk his dog Flour. While Vonnegut has his detractors, a corner with his name is unlikely to spark the kind of furor that has surrounded the proposal for Sonny Carson Avenue.

Since its introduction, the four-block stretch has been a constant topic of council meeting discussion, divided council members and prompted a lawsuit. And it has spurred Oddo to consider reintroducing his street renaming bill. Sometimes referred to as "The Mayor of Bed-Stuy," Sonny Abubadika Carson, a Korean War veteran, was involved in a variety of local causes in the local black community, such as the Republic of New Afrika, the African Burial Ground project, securing voting rights for ex-prisoners, the Black Men's Movement Against Crack and protests against police brutality.

Additionally, his autobiography was turned into a movie The Education of Sonny Carson. Recommended by the local community board and submitted for consideration by Councilmember Albert Vann, Carson would seem to be shoo in for an honorary street name. But Carson also had a record of criminal and racially motivated activities.

In , he served time in prison for kidnapping. The activist made little secret of his attitudes. When asked about his anti-Semitic statements, for example, Carson replied, "I'm anti-white. Don't just limit me to a little group of people. We're going to use whatever means necessary to make sure that everyone is disrupted in their normal life. A stretch of Sixth Avenue north of th Street was renamed Lenox Avenue in after millionaire philanthropist and book collector James Lenox.

In the late s, the street got another name change to recognize Malcolm X. But those backing the renaming say it is up to people in the community, in this case Bedford-Stuyvesant, to determine who they can honor. Explaining Carson's significance, Vann said , "He came into prominence at a time when the black community was asserting itself, defining itself, claiming itself and trying to make the community better for black people - he was a part of that struggle.

When it came time for the parks committee to vote, it split along racial lines with three white members -- Alan Gerson, Joseph Addabbo and Dennis Gallagher - voting to delete Carson's name. Chairwoman Helen Foster, who is black, voted against its removal, and another black member, Letitia James, abstained. At a council meeting following that vote, Councilmember Charles Barron criticized the council for voting to "block the black community from self-determination of selecting our own heroes. Vann, who like Barron is black, also voiced concerns about the council setting a precedent for overriding local interests.

Vann apparently takes a fairly broad view of that right. During a television appearance on NY1, he responded to a hypothetical inquiry about a German community wanting to name a street after Adolph Hitler. Do they have the right to offer that up? Yes, they do," Vann said. Two members of the local Brooklyn community board sued the city council for removing Carson's name from consideration.

Presiding Judge Leland DeGrasse rejected the claim, ruling that because the renaming of streets is a legislative matter rightfully under the purview of the city council. During the heated debate, Barron said that, if the council failed to honor Carson, he would demand information on every person recommended for an honorary street name in the future. Whether or not the council agrees with Barron's other comments, the frequency of streets named for slaveholders is indisputable.

By one count , at least 70 New York City streets has slave owner names Takes Gates Avenue, the very name once slated to bear Carson's moniker. Its name honors Horatio Gates, a Revolutionary War general. For part of his adult life , Gates owned a Virginia plantation and slaves, although he freed them in An influential historical figure and "founding father" of America, Thomas Jefferson is honored with a park and a high school ironically in Barron's largely black. But as Barron pointed out at a recent council meeting, Jefferson could also be described as a slaveowner, rapist and pedophile.

Foster added that Jefferson sold his own children into slavery. Horatio Gates, a Revolutionary War general, whose name now graces what some would dub Sonny Carson Avenue, owned slaves who he eventually freed. Of course, not only slaveowners are controversial. In , the city renamed the corner of the Bowery and 2nd Street as "Joey Ramone Place," in memory of the Ramones singer. It bleeds into Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant on the east. Peter Lefferts had arrived in New Netherland in and had purchased a farm in this area in about , and passed the property on to his son John.

On August 23, , British forces engaged American rebels in the area near the farm. Rather than allow the British to occupy the house, the rebels burned it to the ground the family had already left town to escape the anticipated British invasion. John Lefferts died a couple of months after that, and his family set to the task of rebuilding the farmhouse.

During the year, there are sheep shearing exhibitions a swell as Dutch and African-American festivals. Part of it has been designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, as the side streets have some distinctive late 19th Century and early 20th Century attached houses along well-shaded streets. This was the first neighborhood designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in Its picturesque tree-lined streets overlook a high bluff facing the East River.

In the s, traffic czar Robert Moses built a triple-decker roadway to accommodate the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway on top of the bluff, with the top deck becoming a walkway facing the Manhattan skyline officially called the Esplanade, but which Brooklynites call the Promenade. Along with Downtown see below the area, part of the original Brooklyn Village, sprung up around the Fulton Ferry, which ran for the better part of two centuries until it was shut down in The grande dame of Brooklyn streets, Fulton, surpassed in length only by Bedford and Flatbush Avenues, emanates from here and runs out to the Queens line in Cypress Hills see above.

After much of the industries moved out, real estate speculators including David Walentas bought up much of the old brick and stone factories and warehouses. The story of how Vinegar Hill got its name is an unusual one. Vinegar Hill has been here since , when a John Jackson purchased its land from the Sands brothers for whom Sands Street is named. Jackson actually hoped to attract Irish immigrants in an era when Irish were otherwise unwelcome. He named his tract Vinegar Hill after the site of a fierce battle in the unsuccessful Irish rebellion of Much of Vinegar Hill was lost to the construction of the Farragut Houses in the s.

This neighborhood between Smith Street, Atlantic and 4th Avenues and Union Street was once a part of Gowanus see below but was renamed by real estate concerns in the s after the prominent Dutch landholding family the Boerums. Boerum Place, expanded into a multi-lane approach to the Brooklyn Bridge in the s, bisects the neighborhood, and there is also a Boerum Street in East Williamsburg.

Red Hook today is everything southwest of the Gowanus Expressway, and it is defined on the west and south by Gowanus Bay which becomes the canal as it pushes inland and by Lower New York Bay. Originally a Finnish co-op, 43rd Street between 8th and 9th Avenues. This neighborhood contains the same hill that leads uphill from the waterfront as in Park Slope and Greenwood Heights. Over the decades it has benefited from an influx of Scandinavians and Irish, followed by South Americans and Caribbeans and since the s, Cantonese followed by Fuzhou.

The park at the north end of the neighborhood sits at the top of the hill, and the western view from the park offers pleasant sunset scenes. Borough Park is thought of today as a quiet residential neighborhood between Dyker Heights and Kensington in the southwestern quadrant of Brooklyn. But, Borough Park used to have a quite different aspect. Sure, it was always pretty quiet, but until the late s it was the province of farms, hay wagons and mooing cows.

Formerly vacant land was opened to to real estate development in by Electus B. William Reynolds expanded the property and renamed it Borough Park, though the Post Office on 12th Avenue and 51st still bears the name Blythebourne Branch. Bay Ridge is named similarly to Brooklyn Heights, describing a bluff facing a body of water, this time the Narrows. Fort Hamilton is the crown jewel of Bay Ridge, an active fort on the southwest tip of Long Island since it was completed in It is situated on the Narrows, a strait separating Long Island and Staten Island, and a strategic point for any enemy vessels that would attempt to enter Upper New York Bay and then the island of Manhattan from the south.

Patriots fired on the British warship Asia during the invasion, but it was of little hindrance. Lee , the great general of the Confederacy, was once a major figure in Brooklyn. While still a captain in the US Army in , Lee was given the task of improving armament at Fort Hamilton as well as other forts in the region, and served here until A major east-west street inside the military reservation is named for him, and he was a vestryman at St.

The church is still there, now on its second structure. However Van Dyke is a common Dutch name and a family of that name did have a hand in its development in the mids. The neighborhood is best-known and most heavily chronicled during the Christmas season, when many locals construct extravagant Christmas displays, especially along 84th Street between 11th and 12th Avenue.

Benson was interred in the now-largely abandoned Prospect Cemetery in Jamaica, Queens. This was a recreational area in Brooklyn too, as villas and yacht clubs clustered near the shore. Bath Beach also had an amusement park Ulmer Park, closed , remembered today only by the bus depot at 25th and Harway Avenues. The town of New Utrecht was named for Utrecht, Netherlands, the 4th largest city in that country, from which a number of Dutch colonists hailed in the s.

Let the debates begin! There were scattered farms around until the s when the Coney Island Plank Road Coney Island Avenue was built and some dwellings began to concentrate at Coney Island and Church Avenues, as well as the northern end of the area near Ft. As early as , the street pattern began to appear. Prospect Park South was developed at the turn of the 19 th th Century by upstate New Yorker Dean Alvord, who purchased a parcel of land in the then-town of Flatbush just south of Prospect Park, of course from the estate of Luther Voorhies and the Dutch Reformed Church in Alvord, with the aid of architect John Petit, set about building sumptuously-appointed buildings for the well-to-do.

Her father, Jon Martense, and her son-in-law was Philip Crooke. All these folks have had local streets named for them. From developer T. It was developed by Lewis Pounds and architect Arlington Isham. Both locales were completed by Their progenitor was Jan Jansen von Ditmarsum, who emigrated from Holland in the s. Before it was recently refurbished: The Avenue H subway station house, originally the T.

Ackerson real estate office. Only in Brooklyn can South Midwood be located north of Midwood. Scholars differ whence Gravesend got its name. The more widely-accepted theory is that Gravesend is named for a British seacoast town 15 miles east of London. Gravesend was the only one of the six original Kings County towns that was a British settlement. Pocahontas, the Algonquian Indian princess who apparently saved the life of captain John Smith from execution by her father Powhatan in is buried in Gravesend, England; she had gone to England in with her husband, John Rolfe, and died of tuberculosis the following year.

It was privatized around Sea Gate sustained heavy damage from Hurricane Sandy in Many of the homes built during the first wave of development are still there, while on other blocks that soil is too swampy to support anything more substantial than bungalows. The bay, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, and the neighborhood north of it, are named for the sheepshead, a fish no longer found in local waters.

Locating sheepshead with a boat is not difficult: The average weight of a sheepshead is 3 to 4 pounds, but some individuals reach the range of 10 to 15 pounds. Only the names survive… Manhattan Beach, Brighton Beach…. William Engeman developed what is today the neighborhood of Brighton Beach in the late s, naming his Brighton Hotel for the British seaside resort town.

In the mids, railroad magnate Austin Corbin speculated on property on the peninsula south of Sheepshead Bay and named it for Manhattan Island. The Gerritsen family operated a mill in what is presently Marine Park for generations, and finally sold it to millionaire William Whitney in the s. The creek was a freshwater stream that once extended about twice as far inland, all the way up to Kings Highway The creek had been converted to a storm drain by the early s.

Mill Basin, now on a peninsula defined by the curving Mill Basin and East Mill Basin, consists mainly of curved and circular streets punctuated by sometimes fanciful mansions like one shown above. There had been a few houses left over from the Dutch colonial period; two have been relocated to the Brooklyn Museum. However, Bergen Beach is a little different since these lands are named for a Norwegian, Hans Hansen Berger, who emigrated here by way of Holland in and six generations of Bergens followed him in Kings County residency, including newspaper owners and members of the US Congress.

North of that is…. Truly the last area to be fully developed in Brooklyn, Georgetown was mainly empty lots until the s and developed slowly after that, not really filling in completely until the first decade of the 21st Century. Georgetown was named for a planned development in the s to be called Georgetowne Greens in the vicinity of Ralph Avenue and Avenue L.

Pet McGuinness was the embodiment of Greenpoint. Very good article on the neighborhoods of Brooklyn. My maternal grandmother was one of the first residents of Starrett City back in , before moving into a retirement home first in Far Rockaway and then in Staten Island. Eventually the city bowed to neighborhood opposition by not building the proposed project, but the Georgetowne Greens developers decided against completing their project due to a lack of interest at the time.

Other builders susequently came into the area, completing construction of the largely brick or brick and wood sided mostly semi-detached homes. I lived on Fenimore Street in Pigtown from I lived in Pigtown born there lived on Maple street across from Boys High athletic field until Mayor Lindsey took property to build a school. MY I settled there in late s. And we left the property in MY grandparents settled there in late s. You featured it in much detail in March and described Parkville Junction, which was still very active around that time.

Regardless of the name, it was a great place to grow up, and your article brings back good memories. Keep up the excellent work and have a good backup! Prospect Lefferts Gardens, which is actually the northern tip of Flatbush, has somewhat wider boundaries than what you listed. Then again, some of them that are mentioned are more real estate areas rather than actual neighborhoods. I do find City Line to be the weirdest name for a neighborhood though. As for Georgetown, the description you give sort of reminds me about the part of Queens known as Utopia, which was named for a housing project that never came there either.

Meanwhile, I always though Gravesend was a Dutch name, though it could be on how it gets pronounced. Which is a story that has taken up entie books. Kevin, that human habitation in Mill Basin has to be the ugliest building you have ever featured in your pages. I would think that the only redeeming feature of this thing is that if you lived in it you would not have to look at it.

Nothing like a good old castle. I remember the police precinct and St. I lived on 30th street between 4 and 5 avenues. In which neighborhood is E58th Street between Farragut and Foster located? Regarding Bath Beach, my neighborhood.

Brooklyn By Name

I must correct you, especially since you never make mistakes…but you meant to say Bay 8th Street, not West 8th street, but I say this with love, of course. Funny, it took me decades to always wonder why at the 17th ave bridge there was always sand on the bicycle path, hence when the tide goes out there is sand there and you can really see at one time it was a beach. Wonder how deep the water is before it drops…. I heard somewheres that Cobble Hill was part of the Heights until about thes when some real estate guy who else saw on an old map that it was called Cobble Hill by the British and started calling it that to sell real estate in the area.

I lived in Utrecht for 5 years,and am fluent in the Dutch language. Otherwise, the article is very interesting, especially since I was born and raised in Brooklyn. I was once in Breukelen, The Netherlands,after which the fair borough was named. I was also born and lived in Brighton Beach until I was five at Coney Island Avenue very easy to remember that address!

Now have been a resident of Los Angeles, CA for 62 years. I was born and raised in Carroll Gardens but, growing up, we always said we lived in Red Hook because it sounded tougher. I live in Atlanta now but do miss the different ethnicity and diversity of each neighborhood. Someone would get there before the gates opened so we can have the picnic tables for the family. Basically, I traversed Brooklyn from one end to the other for beaches, dates and food.

Very entertaining, informative and enjoyable article s!

List of Brooklyn neighborhoods

I love this article but it has a minor error. You said that Jan Jansen Ditmarsen came from Holland. However, in actuality, he came from Holstein in Germany. Scroll down to Ditmars Boulevard. Would love to see a map with all of these neighborhoods laid out. Born and bred in Sheepshead Bay and later, Brighton Beach.

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How the Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks, Bridges, and More Got Their Names Brooklyn By Name takes readers on a stroll through the streets and places of this . Brooklyn by Name: How the Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks, Bridges and More Got Their Names [Leonard Benardo, Jennifer Weiss] on bahana-line.com *FREE*.

What about the oldest house in Brooklyn. Its at Clarendon and Ralph. Use to be farm land over there. It is now a museum! One of the best things about growing up in Brighton Beach was its easy access to the ocean.

How the Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks, Bridges, and More Got Their Names

Grew up in Flatbush. Went to James Madison H. Now live in Florida.

Played sandlot baseball with Frank Torre. Good life in Brooklyn. Does anyone out there have any memories of that area? It is interesting to know the history the distinctions of the different sub-neighborhood in the area. To me,the boundaries of Flatbush are the end of Ocean Avenue,where it ends and turns into Empire Blvd,roughly a block away from where Ebbets Field stood. Then heading back down Flatbush Avenue,it ends at the junction,which is the intersection of Flatbush and Nostrand Aves. They bring back a lot of memories! Your boundaries are correct for me.

We lived on Lefferts Blvd. I was born there, too! The hospital is located at Rockaway Pkwy and Linden Blvd. When you exit from the back of the hospital you are on E. Amboy street which is one block away is in Brownsville. Also i worked downtown for many years and the border of the heights was always thought of as court st. Politically South Brooklyn was considered much larger then you describe. I lived in Williamsburg from infancy until I was married then moved to Queens. I must look at my birth certificate to check at what hospital I was born.

Life was much safer then, I can remember going out very late Saturday night to buy the early edition of Sunday newspaper. I was quite young, but people were sitting out in the summer and it wads quite safe. I lived on Scholes Street, between Graham Ave. The apartment house no longer stands there, Quite a few years ago a parking lot was where the building stood.

I was born in Brooklyn—5th generation. My great, great grandparents, on both sides of the family, were born in Brooklyn, and their families lived in several areas throughout South Brooklyn over the last years. Bay Ridge was divided in half. My daughter 13 or 14 at the time said: It was part of the Address…ie: I attended Bay Ridge HS.. My Grandparents lived on 52nd Street.. You are correct that Sunset Park referred to the park. We also considered ourselves as living in Bay Ridge.

Do you remember the store that sold lanyard and beads on 7th ave and 46th street? What about the great candy stores and the store that sold the best Italian Ices in the city on 8th and 42nd. How about the Ritz Movie Theatre. I saw The Diary of Anne Frank there. What a great place to grow up! No photos What happened?? Let you know I have old old Life Magazines which I saved some magazines for my children ….

Homes and friends good neighbors. Thanks for the wonderful memories. Originally from President St. Just happened to be browsing and saw your website. Raised in East New York where there were so many small neighborhood businesses not to mention Con Edison store on Atlantic Ave and Cleveland Street where you could pay your bill or buy appliances. Police precinct at Liberty Ave and Miller Avenue was the 75th precinct not 17th. Remember fruit and vegetable carts on Belmont Ave. Also used to walk to City Line or Brownsville to shop.

As was said great memories. Now in the Mile High City. Is there a map that shows all of these areas? Is that not true? I was told the four building complex apartment was originally built as a resort hotel called The Albany Night Life. After exhaustive searches on line, I have not been able to find any information. Can you advise me as to a source that might be helpful? Boerum Hill was called Boerum Hill at least as early as , and I never heard that the name came from developers.

There is another co-op built by Finns next to it called Alku I i. They turn years old this year, built , and were the first co-ops in the USA. Finns built or renovated over 20 apartment buildings in Sunset Park around that time. There were about 15, — 20, Finns living in that area at one time. Left out of this article is Sunset Park. The highest natural point in Brooklyn lies in Sunset Park which boasts a huge public swimming pool complex.

This area has some of the best views in all of NYC. Sunset Park was home to a large Nowegian and Finish community and hosted a parade down 8th Ave every year. The neighborhood is making a huge comeback and fast becoming a favorite of those seeking a hidden gem.

It was a great place to grow up! I could see all of Brooklyn from my bedroom window and on a clear night, watch planes land at JFK. There was plenty of shopping on Eighth and Fifth Avenue.