Brooklyn; a Quick History

Brooklyn, NY - a Quick History

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In 1646, the Village of Breuckelen was authorized by the Dutch West India Company and became the first municipality in what is now New York State (the predecessors of the Cities of Albany and New York were numbers two and three, respectively).

In 1683, almost 20 years after the English kicked out the Dutch (1664), the General Assembly of Freeholders reorganized the governmental structure in all of the province of New York into twelve counties, each of which was sub-divided into towns.

Brooklyn was one of the original six towns of Kings County, an original county when the county/town system was established in 1683 (Other local area original counties were New York, Richmond, Queens, Westchester and Suffolk. The Bronx was part of Westchester County until 1873, when New York City/County annexed the western Bronx, and 1895, when the eastern Bronx was annexed as well. The eastern two-thirds of Queens County seceded and became Nassau County in 1899, making Nassau the youngest county in New York State, although the Bronx “paper” county was established in 1914 when the Bronx "seceded" from New York County.)

The next sections include some additional information about important dates for all the cities, towns and villages that were part of the history of what we now refer to as "Brooklyn".

The Town of Brooklyn did not have that large a population in 1790, the year of the first federal census. The Town of Oyster Bay, then in Queens County, had a larger population than did Brooklyn that year.

The Village of Breuckelen (1646) preceded City of Nieuw Amsterdam (1653) by some seven years.

Brooklyn/Kings County has two names because it took some two-hundred years for Brooklyn to annex the other parts of Kings County.

When the City of Brooklyn annexed the City of Williamsburgh and the Town of Bushwick, this area was then known as the eastern district of the City of Brooklyn and Williamsburgh lost its final “h”.

The streets in Brooklyn do not line up because each of the 2 cities and 6 towns in Kings County were independent municipalities and purposely decided to create street grids with different naming systems that did not line up with the adjoining city or town. The Town of Gravesend was the only town where the streets run long north-to-south, all other cities and towns ran their streets long west-to-east. Gravesend was the only English town; all the others were Dutch.

South Brooklyn is north of southern Brooklyn because until 1894 the Red Hook area (South Brooklyn) was the southernmost part of the City of Brooklyn.

Bay Ridge was originally called “Yellow Hook” until a yellow fever epidemic struck and the name was changed.

A SHORT HISTORY OF MANHATTAN BEACH

Manhattan Beach began its transformation from a genteel haven for the super rich to an exclusive bedroom community before World War I. The goal was reached with the completion of the Manhattan Beach Estates by real estate developer Joseph P. Day in the 1920s. His design for the community emphasized the romantic and limited the practicalities by hiding service areas and disguising utility poles behind the sometimes ornate mini-mansions.

Manhattan Beach Hotel opened in 1878, Oriental Hotel, opened in 1880. Day showed interest in Manhattan Beach as early as 1904, eight years after the death of Austin Corbin, who had developed Manhattan Beach as a summer resort. Day auctioned land with the first private house on Manhattan Beach, one of "Moorish design" on Falmouth Street, completed in 1909.

Hard times caused a fallout of interest in horse racing which led the hotel management to bring in Day, who had successfully marketed Midwood Estates. The Manhattan Beach Hotel closed after the 1911 season and was demolished the following year, only two years after the enactment of the fatal New York State anti-betting legislation. Day kept the Oriental Hotel going for four more summers. Eventually, wood from the hotel was used for construction of the boardwalk and bungalows of Rockaway Point.

That same year, 1916, Day announced his plan for the Manhattan Beach Estates: 114 homes complete with sewers, sidewalks, curbs, water, gas and electricity. To show his confidence, he created the Manhattan Beach Bath Houses and Resort on the site of the Oriental Hotel, from Ocean Avenue to Girard Street. It had handball courts, and bandstand with Rudy Vallee in the 1921 season (although dancing was not allowed) and a lagoon for children; the cost was $20 for a locker and a season's pass. Day even purchased one of the nine original houses built on Corbin Place that same year.

Bungalows were the first houses to be built on the eastern side of West End Avenue, across from the Long Island Rail Road terminus that had been newly rebuilt in 1909. The old station was given to the new Roman Catholic Church, St. Mary Margaret. A public school was yet to be constructed but lots were laid out on Amherst, Exeter, Beaumont, Falmouth, Hastings, Jaffrey, Kensington, Langham and Mackenzie Streets.

Music at Manhattan Beach was such an important part of its former hotel life that Day decided to continue the tradition established by Sousa, Gilmore, Pryor and Victor Herbert in the Manhattan Beach Hotel days. Now Paul Whiteman, Ted Lewis and Ben Bernie welcomed Mayors John Hylan and James Walker as well as stars from the new Brooklyn film industry at Vitagraph studios--John Bunny, Francis X. Bushman, Clara Bow, and producer Adolph Zukor.

The new Rainbow Bandshell replaced the old music bandstand. By 1935, the days of swing were just around the corner; the Baths stayed open all year with the addition of the Manhattan Beach Lodge. Over 25,000 memberships were sold. On Sundays, even in mid-winter, 10,000 gate admissions were recorded. The popular dance bands of Les Brown, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Guy Lombardo, Kay Kyser, Ina Ray Hutton, and Louis Prima came to "play pretty for the people." New artists entertained along with established stars: Alice Faye, Danny Kaye, Buddy Hackett, Phil Silvers, Bob Hope, Tallulah Bankhead and Helen Hayes. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia dropped by, NBC sent their new television cameras over to film a tennis match in 1939, and occasionally a live show with Henry Morgan or an itinerant disc jockey from WMCA broadcast new records from the Brooklyn location.

Now the Baths boasted a baseball diamond, two outdoor pools, miniature golf, handball, tennis and basketball courts, a skating rink (both roller and ice), and a restaurant. The women lifeguards made the cover of Life with the accompanying story, "Life Goes to a Party at Joseph Day's Manhattan Beach Baths." It was billed as the "World's Largest Privately Owned Playground."

By 1939, 88 new houses were developed for $1 million as well as 174 new summer cottages; 1940 saw a similar growth and in 1941, the Waxboro Corporation advertised a home community for $4 million on eastern Manhattan Beach. But December 7, 1941, when Johnny McGee, the bandleader playing at the Lodge, announced the bombardment of Pearl Harbor, a drastic change was implicit for Manhattan Beach. No longer would it be a playground; now it would be a training ground for war. By 1942, bath members were told to clean out their lockers and the land was sold to the U.S.

The Coast Guard station established on the present beach area trained over one-third of their personnel at the Brooklyn base while the merchant marine--civilians who transported supplies by ship--processed over 115,000 seamen, one-half of the nation's volunteer sailors.

Both bases closed in 1945, at the end of the war, but Robert Moses, then Parks Commissioner for New York City and State, requested the land for a state park; he only received the beach as a city park. The eastern tip was a point of contention between the state and federal governments. So, in the interim while legal battle were fought in the courts, the U.S. Air Force, the New York Air National Guard and Veterans' Housing utilized barracks on the disputed land until Kingsborough Community College was founded in 1964. The city and state eventually donated the land for an educational or health facility for a token fee of $1.

Aside from photographs and memories, very little remains from the former lives of Manhattan Beach. Of the hotels, nothing remains--except the sand of Manhattan Beach on which the 480 room Oriental Hotel rested. The 353 room Manhattan Beach Hotel (1877-1911) was built approximately between West End Avenue and Dover Streets. Point Breeze, at the tip, had a 100 room hotel and a pavilion for day guests--picnickers and fishing parties--about where the college is, but it disappeared in the 1888 winter storms.

The most successful entertainment on Coney Island, however, was the fireworks spectacle. James M. Pain, a master pyrotechnician, was brought from England with his son, Henry J., by Austin Corbin to create hour-long panoramas to fill the intermissions between band concerts. Some of the more ambitious productions lasted several hours. The displays, on subjects such as the eruption of Vesuvius, the burning of Rome and the attack of Moscow used hundreds of actors, acrobats and clowns plus at least 40 pyrotechnicians to entertain audiences of over 10,000. The enclosure for The Alexandra Fireworks--which also gave performances at Brighton Beach--was in the middle of Ocean Avenue, in front of the Manhattan Beach Hotel's bicycle track, between 1879-1905.

In the last years of the Manhattan Beach Baths, a gate and a flagpole were acquired from the 1939-40 New York World's Fair. The gate, from the "Gardens on Parade" exhibit, was eventually melted down for the "war effort." The flagpole still remains on the KCC campus.

On the Kingsborough campus, the most noticeable relic is the gun near the main gate, a reminder from the days when the merchant marine trained on the site and a bronze plaque honoring the war dead who had graduated from the base school.

Manhattan Beach has been and remains the home of many notable Brooklyn personalities. Until his death, Judge Samuel Liebowitz lived on the corner of Coleridge and Hampton Streets. During the 1930s, he was the criminal lawyer who defended the Scotsboro Boys, black men who were railroaded and accused of raping two white women, who eventually admitted that they had lied. As the ruling judge in the trial of Murder, Inc. members, a murder-by-contract gang, he received many death threats.

Well-known Brooklyn figures make their homes on the Beach. Mell Lazarus, the cartoonist who draws "Miss Peach" and "Mom" was a former resident, a novel, The Neighborhood Watch, makes clear: it takes place in mythical Kingsborough Beach.

Controversy has occasionally struck the neighborhood. Only two apartment houses are built in the community. Both were constructed during lapses in the variance laws.

But tradition has been a stronger force in the local history. The oldest religious group in the community, St. Mary Margaret Roman Catholic Church, started in the original NY&MBRR station building. The church is now located on a large piece of property on Ocean Avenue off Oriental Boulevard. Two synagogues are on West End Avenue. The Menora Geriatric Center replaced the original Veteran's Hospital for tuberculosis patients, which moved to larger quarters in Dyker Heights.

Streets were given British names, suggesting the snobbery both Corbin and Day wanted to infuse into the Manhattan Beach community. Perhaps a new challenge for cartographers could be the renaming of Kingsborough streets for the target year of its address: 2001.

HERE'S A QUICK QUICK HISTORY
Key Dates in the History of Kings County (Brooklyn)

1524 - Giovanni da Verrazano explores New York Bay.

1646 - Village of Breuckelen granted charter by the Dutch West India Company.

1609 - Henry Hudson lands on Coney Island, explores New York Bay and the Hudson River.

1636-1684 - Native American chiefs transfer Brooklyn lands to the Europeans.

1646 - The Town of Brooklyn (Breuckelen) is chartered by the Dutch West India Company.

1647 - The Town of Flatlands (New Amersfoort) is chartered. Hans Hansen Bergen receives a grant of waterfront land in Brooklyn and Bushwick.

1652 The Town of Flatbush (Midwout or Vlacke Bosch) is chartered. The Dutch West India Company acquires Yellow Hook (Bayridge) from the Nyack Indians.

1654 - Coney Island (Conye Islant) is acquired from the Indians by the Town of Gravesend. Brooklyn's first church, Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church, is founded.

1657 - The Town of New Utrecht is chartered by Jacques Cortelyou.

1661 - The Town of Bushwick (Boswick) is chartered by Governor Pieter Stuyvesant.

1683 - Kings County and six towns created: Brooklyn, Bushwick, Flatbush, Flatlands, Gravesend and New Utrecht.

1645 The Town of Gravesend is charted. Founded by Lady Deborah Moody and a group of English Anabaptists in 1643, it is only one of six original towns that was not settled by the Dutch.

1664 - New Netherland is taken over by the English and renamed New York.

1677 - New Lots and Flatbush are separated by Governor Edmund Andro's charter.

1683 - The Towns of Brooklyn, Bushwick, Flatbush, Flatlands, Gravesend and New Utrecht join to make up Kings County.

1698 - The first census of Kings County is taken, listing the population of King's County as 2,017 (1,721 white; 296 of African descent).

1776 - During the Revolutionary War, General William Howe leads British Army in the Battle of Long Island, the first major battle of war. George Washington retreats across the East River and Brooklyn is occupied by British soldiers; the beginning of the British occupation of Brooklyn (from 1776-1783).

1787 - Erasmus Hall Academy receives a state charter, making it the first public school in the country.

1790 - First U.S. Census is taken. Kings County has a total population of 4,495 (3,017 white, 1,478 of African descent) sixty percent of all Kings County families own slaves. This rate is the highest of any county in New York State.

1797 - John Doghty frees slave Caesar Foster. This is the first recorded act of manumission in Brooklyn.

1799 - A system for the gradual emancipation of slaves is begun in New York State. Brooklyn's first newspaper, the Long Island Courier, is published.

1801 - The Brooklyn Navy Yard is established on Wallabout Bay.

1814 - The steamship Nassau begins ferry service between Brooklyn and New York.

1816 - Village of Brooklyn comprising the present-day downtown area is incorporated within Town of Brooklyn.

1818 - Brooklyn's oldest African-American church, Bridge Street A.W.M.E. Church, is founded.

1827 - The Village of Williamsburg is incorporated within the Town of Bushwick. Slavery is abolished in New York State. Weeksville is settled by free African Americans.

1831 - Kings County Hospital is founded.

1832 - William Thomas buys 30 acres of farmland and becomes the first African American landowner in Brooklyn. Jim de Wilt, reputed to be the last "full-blood" Native American of Brooklyn dies.

1834 - Town of Brooklyn (including Village of Brooklyn) becomes City of Brooklyn. George Hall becomes Brooklyn’s first Mayor. Kings County now includes one city (Brooklyn) and five towns (Bushwick, Flatbush, Flatlands, Gravesend and New Utrecht).

1836 - Construction of Brooklyn City Hall begins. It is completed in 1849.

1838 - Greenwood Cemetery is incorporated.

1841 - The Brooklyn Eagle Newspaper begins publication. Walt Whitman is one of its first editors.

1840-1850 - First Great Wave of European immigration begins. Immigrants are largely northern and western Europeans.

1841 - The Brooklyn Daily Eagle begins publishing.

1847 - Colored School No. 1 opens in Fort Greene. The Atlantic Basin is completed.

1848 - Brooklyn Borough Hall opens (formerly called Brooklyn City Hall).

1851 - Village of Williamsburgh secedes from Town of Bushwick and becomes City of Williamsburgh. Kings County now includes two cities (Brooklyn and Williamsburgh) and 5 towns (Bushwick, Flatbush, Flatlands, Gravesend and New Utrecht).

1852 - Town of New Lots secedes from Town of Flatbush. Kings County consists of two cities (Brooklyn and Williamsburgh) and six towns (Bushwick, Flatbush, Flatlands, Gravesend, New Lots and New Utrecht).

1853 - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn is established. Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute are established. Horse-railway service is introduced by the Brooklyn City Railroad Company.

1854 - City of Williamsburgh and Town of Bushwick consolidated into City of Brooklyn. Kings County now one city (Brooklyn) and 5 towns (Flatbush, Flatlands, Gravesend, New Lots and New Utrecht).

1855 - Walt Whitman publishes Leaves of Grass.

1857 - The Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn is formed. The Mercantile Library is founded.

1858 - The National Association of Baseball Players is formed. It is baseball's first centralized organization. Brooklyn is represented by 71 teams.

1859 - Brooklyn Academy of Music is incorporated. St. Francis Academy is founded.

1860 - Brooklyn becomes the third largest city in America. Its population is 279,122.

1861 - The Civil War begins. Rev. Henry Ward Beecher raises money from his Plymouth Church congregation to free Sarah Maria Diggs.

1862 - The iron-clad Civil War ship Monitor is launched at Greenpoint and later outfitted at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It was built in only 101 days.

1863 - The Brooklyn Historical Society is founded as The Long Island Historical Society.

1864 - The Brooklyn Long Island Sanitary Fair is held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The purpose of the fair was to raise funds for soldiers and their families.

1865 - Wechsler & Abraham opens. This store is later known as Abraham & Straus. Charles S. Brown founds Brown's Village (Brownsville).

1867 - Prospect Park is completed. The park was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux.

1868 - Eastern Parkway, the world's first six-lane parkway, is completed. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux. William A. Engeman purchases land that later becomes Brighton Beach.

1870 Citizen's Gas Company provides gaslight for Brooklyn.

1874 - The frankfurter is born in Coney Island by Charles Feltman and later nick-named the “hot dog” by the press in 1906 (see "Hot Diggety Dog" below).

1876 - The Brooklyn Theater fire kills 295 people.

1880 - Second great wave of European immigration to Brooklyn. It lasts into the early twentieth century and is made up largely of eastern and southern Europeans.

1880 - Brooklyn is the fourth largest producer of manufactured goods in America. The Society of Old Brooklynites is founded.

1881 - The Brooklyn Historical Society moves into its new building designed by George B. Post.

1883 - Opening of the Brooklyn Bridge (designed by John Roebling) provided the first link between Brooklyn and Manhattan. During its 13-year construction, 27 men died including its designer. The Brooklyn Dodgers is organized as minor league team.

1884 - The first roller coaster is built in Coney Island by LaMarcus Adna Thompson.

1885 - Brooklyn's first elevated railroad is completed. It runs from the Brooklyn Bridge to Broadway.

1886 - Town of New Lots annexed into City of Brooklyn. Kings County now one city (Brooklyn) and four towns (Flatbush, Flatlands, Gravesend and New Utrecht). Girls High School opens.

1887 - Charles M. Gage opens a restaurant that becomes Gage and Tollner's. Pratt Institute is founded.

1888 - A major blizzard hits Brooklyn. William Zeigler purchases Norton's Point (Sea Gate).

1890 - The first electric trolley begins running in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Dodgers win their first National League pennant. Irving T. Bush begins building Bush Terminal.

1891 - The Montauk Club opens.

1892 - Boy's High School opens. The Soldier's and Sailor's Memorial Arch in Grand Army Plaza is dedicated.

1894 - The Towns of Flatbush, Gravesend and New Utrecht are annexed to the City of Brooklyn. Work on the transatlantic telephone cable is completed. George C. Tilyou introduces the first Ferris wheel to Coney Island.

1895 - The Brooklyn trolley strike occurs. Brooklyn City Hall catches fire.

1896 - Town of Flatlands annexed into City of Brooklyn. Kings County and City of Brooklyn become coterminous (I like that word; it means adjacent, adjoining, contiguous, next to; Jack Baker corrects me saying coterminous more accurately means "having the same boundaries"). The x-ray is first demonstrated at Adelphi Academy. Construction begins on the Williamsburgh Bridge. Pratt Institute Free Library opens. It is Brooklyn's first free library.

1897 - The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences (Brooklyn Museum of Art) opens on Eastern Parkway. The Brooklyn Public Library is established. George Tilyou opens Steeplechase Park in Coney Island. It is the first of Coney Island's great amusement parks.

1898 - Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island (Richmond) join with Manhattan to become New York City.

1899 - The Brooklyn Children's Museum opens. It is the world's first museum for children.

1900 - U.S. Census shows Brooklyn to have a population of 1,166,582.

1901 - Brooklyn Law School opens.

1902 - The Brooklyn Children's Museum opens. Willis Haviland Carrier invents the air conditioner.

1903 - The Williamsburg Bridge opens. The American Revolution prison ship Jersey is discovered under 12 feet of mud in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

1905 - Havemeyer sugar plant closes.

1906 - Vitagraph film company opens in Midwood.

1908 - The IRT, New York's first subway, connects Manhattan to Brooklyn through the Joralemon Street tunnel. The cornerstone is laid for Brooklyn College.

1909 - Manhattan Bridge opens. Coney Island Hospital opens.

1911 - The Brooklyn Botanic Garden opens. Calbriath P. Rodger's transatlantic flight occurs.

1913 - Ebbets Field stadium for the Brooklyn Dodgers opens.

1914 - The Brooklyn Public Library opens the Brownsville Children's Library. This is the first children's library in America.

1915 - The "Great Migration" of African Americans from the rural south begins. The migration will continue through the 30s and 40's through the post World War II period.

1916 - St. Joseph's College founded. Nathan Handwerker opens Nathan's in Coney Island. Margaret Sanger opens the worlds first birth control clinic in Brownsville.

1918 - Malbone Street tunnel wreck occurs, killing 94 people and injuring 100.

1924 - The Immigration Act of 1924 restricts southern and eastern European immigration.

1926 - Long Island University is chartered.

1928 - The Cyclone roller coaster ride opens at Coney Island.

1929 - Williamsburg Savings Bank is completed.

1930 - Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough with 2,560,401 people.

1934 - The Lundy Brothers Restaurant opens in Sheepshead Bay.

1936 - USS Brooklyn is launched at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

1941 - Parachute Jump opens at Coney Island .

1943 - Betty Smith publishes her popular children's book, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

1944 - Battleship Missouri launched at Brooklyn Navy Yard.

1946 - New York City Technical College opens.

1947 - Jackie Robinson signs with the Brooklyn Dodgers and becomes the first African-American player to play in the Major leagues.

1950 - Brooklyn Battery Tunnel opens after 9 years of construction. The only underwater connection between Manhattan and Brooklyn for cars and trucks.

1955 - The Honeymooners, a television show set in Bensonhurst, is first broadcast. The Brooklyn Dodgers defeat the New York Yankees in the World Series.

1957 - The Brooklyn Dodgers play their last game at Ebbets Field. They leave for California and become the L.A. Dodgers. The New York Aquarium opens at Coney Island.

1960 - Ebbets Field is demolished.

1964 - The Verrazano Bridge opens connecting Brooklyn and Staten Island. It is still one of the longest suspension bridges in the world.

1965 - Kingsborough Community College opens. Immigration laws are eased, allowing new immigrants to come to Brooklyn. These immigrants are mainly of Caribbean, Latin American and Asian origin.

1966 - The Brooklyn Navy Yard closes. Brooklyn Heights is designated as New York's first Historic District.

1967 - The Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation is established.

1969 - The first West Indian American Carnival Day Parade is held along Eastern Parkway.

1977 - The Fulton Mall is built in downtown Brooklyn.

1983 - The first Mermaid Parade is held at Coney Island. The Brooklyn Academy of Music holds its first Next Wave Festival.

1983-1984 - The centennial of the Brooklyn Bridge is celebrated.

1987 - MetroTech Center opens in downtown Brooklyn.

1989 - The Brooklyn Philharmonic is formed.

1990 - Brooklyn is still New York City's most populous borough. With 2,300,664 people, it is the equivalent of the fourth largest city in the nation after New York City, Los Angles and Chicago.

1993 - Herstory Archives opens.

1995 - The first Brooklyn History Fair is held. Brooklyn Brewery opens.

1998 - New York Marriott Brooklyn opens. BAM Rose Cinemas open.

Hot Diggety Dog

No one knows for sure when the first frankfurter appeared in America. Some say in Coney Island, but the some research indicates that it was first served under that name in St. Louis in the 1880s by a German immigrant named Antoine Feuchtwanger, whose principal contribution was the soft roll. Everyone wants to take credit for the hot dog.
The fame of the frank really took off in 1901 after Harry Magely, director of catering at New York City's Polo Grounds (where the New York Giants used to play), exhorted customers to "Get your red hots!" and served the frankfurters on a heated roll with various condiments.
The term "hot dog" was coined by Hearst Newspaper sports cartoonist Tad Dorgan, who often caricatured German figures as dachshunds and, as of 1906, as talking sausages.
So widespread was the name "hot dog" that, to calm patrons' fears, Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Stand in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York, put up a sign explaining that its sausages did not contain any dog meat.