Bedford-Stuyvesant, Stuyvesant Heights and Brownsville
Bedford Stuyvesant is a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York which for a long time has been a cultural center for Brooklyn's black population, a neighborhood settled in the mid-17th century is Stuyvesant Heights and Brownsville is a residential neighborhood in eastern Brooklyn.
This neighborhood is bordered by Flushing Avenue to the north (bordering Williamsburg), to the west by Classon Avenue (bordering Clinton Hill), to the east by Broadway and Van Sinderen Avenue (bordering Bushwick and East New York) and to the south by Atlantic Avenue (bordering Crown Heights). In 1936 when a subway line was finally constructed which connected Harlem in Manhattan to Bedford African-Americans could leave the crowded conditions they lived in and move over to Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn. Bedford-Stuyvesant's main thoroughfare is Nostrand Avenue but its main shopping street is Fulton Street. Subway trains servicing the area are the A and C trains.
The name Stuyvesant comes from the last governor of New Netherlands colony Peter Stuyvesant. The first major settlement in pre-revolutionary Kings County lying east of the Village of Brooklyn on the ferry road to the neighborhood of Jamaica and eastern Long Island was Bedford. In 1833 when the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad was built along Atlantic Avenue Bedford became a railroad station near the intersection of Atlantic and Franklin Avenues. The Long Island Railroad took over the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad in 1836. The Capitoline Grounds (a baseball - park in Brooklyn from 1864 to 1880) became home to the Brooklyn Atlantics baseball team. It was built in 1863. In the winter an ice-skating arena was set up on the Grounds which were demolished in 1880. The Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railway with a connection to the LIRR came along in 1878. Bedford contained Weeksville which was one of the oldest free black communities in the U.S. Much of Weeksville is still extant and preserved as a historical site. Ocean Hill which is a subsection was founded in 1890 and is now primarily a residential area.
Bedford-Stuyvesant became a working class and middle-class bedroom community toward the end of the 19th century for those who worked in downtown Brooklyn and Manhattan. This was the time that wooden homes were replaced by brownstone rowhouses. When agricultural work was on the decline in southern United States in the early to mid-20th Century many African-Americans migrated northward. To this very day Bedford-Stuyvesant is known as the black cultural mecca of Brooklyn.
There were also turbulent times in this area. In 1961 gang wars erupted and in 1964 when an Irish American New York Police Department lieutenant Thomas Gilligan shot and killed a 15 year old African-American teenager James Powell race riots broke out in Harlem in Manhattan and spread over to Bedford-Stuyvesant. Then in 1977 during a power outage that occurred throughout New York City in this neighborhood 134 stores were looted of which 45 were set ablaze.
Crime declined after the turn of the century and many properties were renovated. In came new clothing stores, mid-century collector furniture stores, florists, bakeries, cafes and restaurants and Fresh Direct (an online grocer) began delivering to the area. However violent crime still remains a problem in the neighborhood.
Stuyvesant Heights is a neighborhood that is at present gentrifying. It has some of Brooklyn's most handsome and historic brownstones and majestic old apartment buildings. One of the four neighborhoods comprising the widely-known enclave of Bedford Stuyvesant the other being Bedford, Ocean Hill and Weeksville. The main thoroughfares of the neighborhood are Malcolm X. Boulevard and Fulton Street.
Originally this area was farmland which became a community after the American Revolution. Stuyvesant Height was largely developed between 1870 and 1920. The small hamlet of Bedford's outlying farm area was Stuyvesant Heights which was settled by the Dutch in the 17th century within the incorporated town of Breuckelen.
The intersection of several well traveled roads was Bedford Corners. One of the oldest roads in Kings County the Brooklyn and Jamaica Turnpike ran parallel to present day Fulton Street then from the East River ferry to the village of Brooklyn and then on to the hamlet of Bedford through present day Stuyvesant Heights towards Jamaica. This was the route to Manhattan used by farmers from New Lots and Flatbush. The lands comprising the present day Historic District belonged to three Dutch settlers in the second half of the 17th century. They were Dirck Janse Hooghland operator of a ferry on the East River, Jan Hansen and Leffert Pietersen both of whom were farmers.
In Stuyvesant Heights the streets were named after prominent figures in American history. Francis Lewis was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, while Bainbridge, Chauncy, Decatur and MacDonough were naval heroes of the Tripolitan War and the War of 1812. The houses in the area have large rooms, high ceilings and large windows. Mostly upper middle class families bought these houses. They were lawyers, shopkeepers and merchants of German and Irish descent.
When the neighborhood merged with Bedford in 1930 the name was hyphenated as Bedford-Stuyvesant. By this time the area had changed and more and more African-American families moved into the neighborhood. It became the second largest Black community in New York. Today Stuyvesant Heights has become a stable part of an old Black community with a new wave of younger Black professionals, White and Foreign born people moving in. The neighborhood has handsome blocks of houses with neat front yards, tree-lined streets and wide avenues. And once again this area is referred separately to as just Stuyvesant Heights.
Residential Brownsville is bordered by East New York Avenue to the north (on the Bedford-Stuyvesant border), by Remsen Avenue to the west and by the freight rail Bay Ridge Branch of the Long Island Rail Road to the south and by East New York to the east. The neighborhood of Brownsville is dominated by public housing developments. There are 18 NYCHA developments in the area. Surrounding these are semi-detached multiunit row houses.
From the 1880s to the 1950s Brownsville was Jewish and politically radical. Unfortunately for the neighborhood by the 1910s it had acquired a reputation for being a vicious slum and breeding ground for crime. In the 30s and 40s it gained notoriety as the birthplace of Murder, Inc. (also known as the Brownsville Boys or in syndicate circles as The Combination. It was the name given by the press to organized crime groups that from the 1920s to the 1940s resulted in hundreds of murders ordered by the American Mafia and Jewish Mafia groups). Until the 1960s the area was predominantly Jewish and then it became largely black. Most of the families were poor. In 1968 Jimmy Breslin wrote that Brownsville reminded him of Berlin after WWII. There were blocks of burned-out shells of houses, streets littered with automobile hulks, store were empty and streets lined with deserted apartment buildings or building that had empty apartments on every floor.
For the next decades the area was plagued by many problems such as poverty, crime and drug addiction. Violent crime continues to be a problem and Brownsville has a high dropout rate and incidents of violence within its schools.
The name Stuyvesant comes from the last governor of New Netherlands colony Peter Stuyvesant. The first major settlement in pre-revolutionary Kings County lying east of the Village of Brooklyn on the ferry road to the neighborhood of Jamaica and eastern Long Island was Bedford. In 1833 when the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad was built along Atlantic Avenue Bedford became a railroad station near the intersection of Atlantic and Franklin Avenues. The Long Island Railroad took over the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad in 1836. The Capitoline Grounds (a baseball - park in Brooklyn from 1864 to 1880) became home to the Brooklyn Atlantics baseball team. It was built in 1863. In the winter an ice-skating arena was set up on the Grounds which were demolished in 1880. The Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railway with a connection to the LIRR came along in 1878. Bedford contained Weeksville which was one of the oldest free black communities in the U.S. Much of Weeksville is still extant and preserved as a historical site. Ocean Hill which is a subsection was founded in 1890 and is now primarily a residential area.
Bedford-Stuyvesant became a working class and middle-class bedroom community toward the end of the 19th century for those who worked in downtown Brooklyn and Manhattan. This was the time that wooden homes were replaced by brownstone rowhouses. When agricultural work was on the decline in southern United States in the early to mid-20th Century many African-Americans migrated northward. To this very day Bedford-Stuyvesant is known as the black cultural mecca of Brooklyn.
There were also turbulent times in this area. In 1961 gang wars erupted and in 1964 when an Irish American New York Police Department lieutenant Thomas Gilligan shot and killed a 15 year old African-American teenager James Powell race riots broke out in Harlem in Manhattan and spread over to Bedford-Stuyvesant. Then in 1977 during a power outage that occurred throughout New York City in this neighborhood 134 stores were looted of which 45 were set ablaze.
Crime declined after the turn of the century and many properties were renovated. In came new clothing stores, mid-century collector furniture stores, florists, bakeries, cafes and restaurants and Fresh Direct (an online grocer) began delivering to the area. However violent crime still remains a problem in the neighborhood.
Stuyvesant Heights is a neighborhood that is at present gentrifying. It has some of Brooklyn's most handsome and historic brownstones and majestic old apartment buildings. One of the four neighborhoods comprising the widely-known enclave of Bedford Stuyvesant the other being Bedford, Ocean Hill and Weeksville. The main thoroughfares of the neighborhood are Malcolm X. Boulevard and Fulton Street.
Originally this area was farmland which became a community after the American Revolution. Stuyvesant Height was largely developed between 1870 and 1920. The small hamlet of Bedford's outlying farm area was Stuyvesant Heights which was settled by the Dutch in the 17th century within the incorporated town of Breuckelen.
The intersection of several well traveled roads was Bedford Corners. One of the oldest roads in Kings County the Brooklyn and Jamaica Turnpike ran parallel to present day Fulton Street then from the East River ferry to the village of Brooklyn and then on to the hamlet of Bedford through present day Stuyvesant Heights towards Jamaica. This was the route to Manhattan used by farmers from New Lots and Flatbush. The lands comprising the present day Historic District belonged to three Dutch settlers in the second half of the 17th century. They were Dirck Janse Hooghland operator of a ferry on the East River, Jan Hansen and Leffert Pietersen both of whom were farmers.
In Stuyvesant Heights the streets were named after prominent figures in American history. Francis Lewis was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, while Bainbridge, Chauncy, Decatur and MacDonough were naval heroes of the Tripolitan War and the War of 1812. The houses in the area have large rooms, high ceilings and large windows. Mostly upper middle class families bought these houses. They were lawyers, shopkeepers and merchants of German and Irish descent.
When the neighborhood merged with Bedford in 1930 the name was hyphenated as Bedford-Stuyvesant. By this time the area had changed and more and more African-American families moved into the neighborhood. It became the second largest Black community in New York. Today Stuyvesant Heights has become a stable part of an old Black community with a new wave of younger Black professionals, White and Foreign born people moving in. The neighborhood has handsome blocks of houses with neat front yards, tree-lined streets and wide avenues. And once again this area is referred separately to as just Stuyvesant Heights.
Residential Brownsville is bordered by East New York Avenue to the north (on the Bedford-Stuyvesant border), by Remsen Avenue to the west and by the freight rail Bay Ridge Branch of the Long Island Rail Road to the south and by East New York to the east. The neighborhood of Brownsville is dominated by public housing developments. There are 18 NYCHA developments in the area. Surrounding these are semi-detached multiunit row houses.
From the 1880s to the 1950s Brownsville was Jewish and politically radical. Unfortunately for the neighborhood by the 1910s it had acquired a reputation for being a vicious slum and breeding ground for crime. In the 30s and 40s it gained notoriety as the birthplace of Murder, Inc. (also known as the Brownsville Boys or in syndicate circles as The Combination. It was the name given by the press to organized crime groups that from the 1920s to the 1940s resulted in hundreds of murders ordered by the American Mafia and Jewish Mafia groups). Until the 1960s the area was predominantly Jewish and then it became largely black. Most of the families were poor. In 1968 Jimmy Breslin wrote that Brownsville reminded him of Berlin after WWII. There were blocks of burned-out shells of houses, streets littered with automobile hulks, store were empty and streets lined with deserted apartment buildings or building that had empty apartments on every floor.
For the next decades the area was plagued by many problems such as poverty, crime and drug addiction. Violent crime continues to be a problem and Brownsville has a high dropout rate and incidents of violence within its schools.
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