Tag: history

Our Voices Exhibition Celebrates 50 Years of Activism in North Brooklyn: Sneak Peek

The end of May will see the premiere of Our Voices Seen and Heard: A First Hand Account, “an exhibit of artifacts from 50 years of protest, activism and victories in the communities of Williamsburg and Greenpoint Brooklyn.”

This should be very good – the organizers have been working on this for half a year or longer, and the source material is incredibly rich. Los Sures, El Puente, NAG (including in its original acronymic, Neighbors Against Garbage), GWAPP (including in its original acronymic, Greenpoint Williamsburg Against the Power Plant), and many more.

May 20th, mark your calendar.

Reinforced Concrete and the Turner Construction Company – They Changed the World

OK, I was drawn in by the picture of Austin Nichols & Co. (184 Kent).

But Suzanne Spellen (Montrose Morris, from Brownstoner) has been posting on Substack for over half a year now. She still posts about Brooklyn (see link above), though much of her focus has shifted to Troy, NY, which is also fertile grounds for architecture history. Her research and writing is always top notch, and the Substack is worth checking out.

Slavery in North Brooklyn

07/04/2020 | Comment

July 4 is the 193rd anniversary of the end of slavery in New York. Prior to 1827 Kings County – then a collection of 6 towns (Brooklyn, Bushwick, Flatbush, Flatlands, New Utrecht and Gravesend) – had the largest number of enslaved persons in the state.

In 1698, Kings County had a population of 2,015, 293 of whom (15%) were enslaved. The Town of Bushwick (comprising today’s Bushwick, Williamsburg (north of Division) and Greenpoint) had a population of 301 in 1698, 52 of whom (17%) were enslaved.

In 1738, the Town of Bushwick had a population of 325, 77 of whom (24%) were Black. The 1738 census doesn’t enumerate enslaved persons, but it is reasonable to assume that all or nearly all of the 77 Blacks were not free.

A 1755 “census of slaves” for New York State counted 41 enslaved persons in Bushwick. Total population was not recorded, and the count appears not to be complete.

In the 1790 US census (the first for the new country), the Town of Bushwick had a total population of 540, 171 of whom (32%) we enslaved persons. 5 people were recorded as “other free” (i.,e., not “white” and not “slave”). Likely some of those were Black.

In 1800, the Town of Bushwick had a total population of 666, 199 of whom (30%) were enslaved persons. 34 people were counted under “All other free persons”, and by this time it is likely that some were Black. It is possible that up to 1/3 of Bushwick was Black in 1800.

In 1810, the Town of Bushwick had a population of 800, 147 of whom (18%) were enslaved persons. Another 59 persons were counted as “other free persons”. Based on this, up to 1/4 of Bushwick was Black in 1810.

Why the decrease in enslaved persons? NY state laws already limited slavery, and the owning of slaves was already being looked upon as a cruel relic. But, significantly for Bushwick the western part of Bushwick was being developed as a village – Williamsburgh – starting the transition from agrarian to urban. The population was tiny (100 or 200?) in 1810 but the establishment of the village was already removing acres of farmland.

This trend continues in 1820, when the population of the Town of Bushwick had grown to 1,072, of whole 120 (11%) were enslaved persons and 63 (6%) were “free colored”. About 2/3 of the free Black were counted as part of white households (some of which also included enslaved persons). There were only three families of free Blacks in 1820, headed by Thomas Thompson, Jack Portland and George Rictas.

In 1830, the Town of Bushwick had a population of 1,520, of whom 164 (11%) were Black (all free, following emancipation in 1827). 20% of the Black population was enumerated as part of a white household. But over 100 Blacks, in 27 households, lived independently.

By this time, the Village of Williamsburgh had been incorporated (also in 1827), accounting for almost all the growth in the Town’s population. The Black population of Williamsburgh was 97 (about 2/3 the Bushwick total), and 21 of the Black families lived in Williamsburgh, indicative of a sizable Black population (10% of the village total). Up to the Civil War, Williamsburgh had a sizable Black population, active in the abolitionist movement. But that’s another story…

Henry Miller’s Williamsburg Fantasy

04/07/2019 | Comment

Author Henry Miller spent the first decade of his life living at 662 Driggs Avenue. Geoff Cobb, writing in Greenpointers, recently took a look at an article Miller wrote in 1971 about his childhood home:

Though he had been away for five decades, Miller had a crystal clear memory, recalling many fascinating stories from that vanished world of his childhood.

Actually, Miller’s memory about Williamsburg was pretty shitty. He might have sent Pastor John Wells, a “rather pompous and aristocratic minister one of my first pieces of writing from Paris”, but Wells – who died in 1903 – certainly didn’t get it. Wells’ son, who inherited his father’s pastorate at the South Third Street Presbyterian Church, also wasn’t the recipient (Wells fils died in 1929, a year before Miller went to Paris).

The Wells’ church also never became a synagogue (the congregation exists to this day).

And Miller is certainly confused about where he went to high school – “I decided that I would go to Eastern District High School, which at that time was situated in McCaddin Hall on Berry Street or Wythe AVenue, I forget which. There was an Annex to it Situated on Driggs Avenue and South Third Street, just opposite the old Presbyterian Church”.

Eastern District High School was on Division Avenue back then (the building still stands, and is now a yeshiva). The “annex” that he refers to is probably John D. Wells Elementary School, at South 3rd and Driggs.

For more eloquent reminiscences, Miller’s Tropic of Capricorn yields this snippet about Fillmore Place:

It was the most enchanting street I have ever seen in all my life. It was the ideal street – for a boy, a lover, a maniac, a drunkard, a crook, a lecher, a thug, an astronomer, a musician, a poet, a tailor, a shoemaker, a politician. In fact this is just the sort of street it was, containing just such representative of the human race, each one a world unto himself and all living together harmoniously and inharmoniously, but together, a solid corporation, a close knit human spore which would not disintegrate unless the street itself disintegrated.

On the (Queer) Waterfront

New exhibition opening in March at the Brooklyn Historical Society – On the (Queer) Waterfront: The Factories, Freaks, Sailors & Sex Workers of Brooklyn, based on a new book by Hugh Ryan.

LongPoint Bridge Connecting Greenpoint to Long Island City Gains Momentum

I’ve always wanted to see this connection between Greenpoint and Hunter’s Point reestablished. The article mentions the Vernon Avenue Bridge (see below), which was constructed in 1905. But a bridge connecting Manhattan Avenue to Vernon Avenue was in place at least as far back as the mid-1850s, when Greenpoint and Hunter’s Point were being developed. Eliphalet Nott was involved in the development of both neighborhoods, which is apparent looking at the very similar building stock in both areas.

Newtown Creek GMDC

Vernon Avenue Bridge, 1905
Credit: Novelty Theater


Yankowsky and Yankowsky

02/07/2019 | Comment

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1910:

“The man was Andrew Yankowsky, 22 years old, an iron worker, who occupied a furnished room at 81 Grand street, with Andrew Yankowsky. The two are no relation.”

335 Grand Street

01/29/2019 | Comment

I’ve always been curious about 335 Grand Street – one of the buildings involved in a partial collapse that I linked to earlier today. It’s design is – odd. Clearly Italianate in design, but the unibrow swag lintels are unique, and the relationship of the lintels to the undersized windows is awkward at best.

Looking at the 1940s tax photo, it does appear that something changed on the facade. The brickwork at the front appears to be toothed in, and the windows have a brick enframement, all of which may be an indication of alterations.

335 Grand 1940

335 Grand Street
(NYC Municipal Archives)