Hometown New York City Brooklyn

For people living in small to mid-size hometowns, it is easy to write about their towns. However, for someone like me who was born and raised in New York City, it is rather difficult. Therefore I will look upon the borough of Brooklyn as my small town away from the teeming streets of Manhattan and the other boroughs. If you know about Brooklyn and find a neighborhood missing it is just that I wrote about all the ones I knew and where I have been. I was born in a very quiet corner of Brooklyn called Bay Ridge so I began my tour there.

Gowanus is one of the few remaining manufacturing neighborhoods, the transatlantic liner the RMS Queen Mary 2, docks at Red Hook. Park Slope is considered to be one of New York City’s most desirable neighborhoods, As I continue I will paste the links for the neighborhoods I have written about below.

Gowanus is situated between Red Hook and Carroll Gardens on the west, and Park Slope on the East, Butler Street bounding it on the north. The Gowanus Canal runs alongside the neighborhood and ends with the Gowanus Expressway to the south. This neighborhood is marked by the elevated Smith-Ninth Street subway station.

Since the 1860s this area has been an active industrial and shipping center. The majority of residents here live in two NYCHA (New York City Housing Authority) housing projects, Wyckoff Gardens and the Gowanus Houses. There is also residential zoning near the eastern and western borders. In these areas, one can mainly find frame housing which was built prior to the construction of the canal in 1860. Gowanus has attracted new small manufacturing businesses whose owners live in adjoining neighborhoods and can walk or bike to work.

Gowanus Bay was the site of the first settlement by Dutch farmers in 1636. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this area became home to immigrants arriving from Ireland, Italy, and Germany. Gristmills were driven by the power of the ponds of the original Gowanus meadowlands. After WWII there was a decline in shipping at the port of Red Hook and manufacturing decreased around New York City. However, during the 1980s and 1990s, many of the larger buildings here were successfully adapted for smaller, industrial users which by 2000 was the largest growing segment in the industrial sector.

The trains that run through Gowanus are the F, G, and R trains. Crossing the canal there are bike routes on the Union Street and 3rd Street bridges.

Red Hook is part of South Brooklyn. It is a peninsula between Buttermilk Channel, Gowanus Bay, and Gowanus Canal. Red Hook is the only part of New York City that has a full frontal view of the Statue of Liberty.

At one time Red Hook was a separate village. It got its name from the red clay soil and the point of land which projects into the East River. Dutch colonists of New Amsterdam settled the village in 1636 and named it Roode Howek. In Dutch the word “Hoek” actually means “point” or “corner” and not something that is “curved” or “bent” as hook would mean in English.

Rapeleye Street in Red Hook marks the beginning of one of New Amsterdam’s earliest families, the Rapelje clan. They descended from Sarah Rapelje who was the first European child born in the new Dutch settlement in the New World.

The Red Hook Houses is the largest public housing development in Brooklyn and is home to about 5,000 residents.

There are also several parks in the area including Red Hook Park. The park contains a paved path, benches, handball courts, softball fields, a soccer and football field, a track and field, picnic tables, the adjacent Sol Goodman Pool, and new trees and plantings.

Red Hook is connected to Manhattan by the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. In the spring of 2006, the new Carnival Cruise Lines Terminal opened at Pier 12 at Pioneer Street and the Red Hook Marine Terminal is the only maritime facility in Brooklyn to handle container ships.

Red Hook also has two annual events. One is the Red Hook Waterfront Arts Festival which is an annual summer kick-off held in Louis J. Valentino, Jr. Park and Pier and features dance, music, and poetry. The producers of the event are Dance Theater Etcetera. Who concentrate local resources for residents and bring in community partners with activities for the whole family. The second event is Sundays at Sunny’s which is a reading series held the first Sunday of every month. It is co-sponsored by Sunny’s Bar and the independent bookstore Bookcourt and coordinated by writer Gabriel Cohen.

Park Slope is bounded to the east by Prospect Park West, Fourth Avenue to the west, Flatbush Avenue to the north, and 15th Street to the south. Park Slope is known for its historic buildings, top-rated restaurants, bars, and shops. Close by is Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, and the Central Library of the Brooklyn Public Library system.

This area was first inhabited by Native Americans – the Lenape people. In the 17th century, the Dutch colonized the area. Park Slope was the backdrop for the beginning of the Battle of Long Island also known as the Battle of Brooklyn on August 27, 1776, during the American Revolution. In nearby Prospect Park one can see the historic site of Battle Pass and on Fifth Avenue is a reconstructed stone farmhouse where a countercharge covered the American retreat.

In 1814 South Brooklyn was linked to Manhattan by a ferry service from Brooklyn Terminal. In the late 1870s Park Slope became a sort of streetcar suburb. Horse-drawn rail cars ran to Prospect Park and along with the ferry brought rich New Yorkers to the area. Prospect Park West was known as the Gold Coast and many of the large Victorian mansions there were built in the 1880s and 1890s giving lovely views of the park.

Many of these buildings have been preserved within the 24-block Park Slope Historic District which is one of New York’s largest landmarked neighborhoods. When the Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883 Park Slope continued to expand and the 1890 census showed Park Slope to be the richest community in the United States.

In 1892 President Grover Cleveland presided over the unveiling of a notable Park Slope landmark The Soldiers and Sailors Arch at Grand Army Plaza.

The Old Stone House which is a 1930 reconstruction of the Vechte-Courtelyou House which was destroyed in 1897 can be seen on Third Street between Fourth and Fifth Avenues beside the former Gowanus Creek.

Baseball has also played a prominent role in the history of the Park Slope area. The Brooklyn Atlantics (who later became the Dodgers) played at Washington Park on 5th Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets from 1879-1889. When the park was destroyed by a fire the team moved to a park in East New York. The New Washington Park was built in 1898 between Third and Fourth Avenues and between First and Third Streets near the Gowanus Canal. The baseball team was by now known as the Dodgers and they played at this location. By the 1912 season, the Dodgers had outgrown the field and moved to Ebbets Field stadium in Flatbush for the 1913 season.

Park Slope became a rougher, more working-class neighborhood through the 1950s. Most of the immigrants in the area in the 1950s and 1960s were of Italian and Irish descent but in the 1960s and 1970s, this changed as the black and Latino population increased. Hippies and artists began buying and renovating brownstones in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They would convert them into single and two-family homes. Young professional couples began moving into the area and since the mid-1990s younger, childless professionals have moved to Park Slope. With the influx of new upper-middle-class residents Park Slope has become one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

Park Slope is served by the IND Culver Line (F, G trains), the IRT Eastern Parkway Line (2, 3, 4, 5 trains), the BMT Fourth Avenue Line (D, N, R trains), and the BMT Brighton Line (B, Q trains).

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