A HISTORY
Ever wonder how Brooklyn’s
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COURIER LIFE, S 4 EPTEMBER 24-30, 2021
BY BEN VERDE
Take a trip around the 70
square miles of Brooklyn,
and you’ll fi nd a wide range
of vibrant cultures and distinct
architectural styles encapsulated
within the artifi -
cial lines that slice-and-dice
the borough into particular
neighborhoods, with unique
characteristics shaped by
their histories, and marked by
their monikers.
Beyond their convenient
application of identifying geographic
locales within the
sprawling concrete jungle,
neighborhoods names provide
much more — they also
give curious historiographers
a look into the horrifying historical
prominence of Brooklyn’s
slavers, the history of
redlining and real estate, the
cultural self-segregation by
race, and the infrastructural
marvels that cutoff one place
from another to create the
modern mosaic that is Kings
County’s cityscape.
Yet, many reside in neighborhoods
whose namesake is
an elusive mystery to them.
So, for inquisitive Brooklynites,
here’s how the borough’s
neighborhoods got
their names:
Carving up ‘South
Brooklyn’
Until the 1960’s brownstone
renaissance, the swath
of Brooklyn stretching from
Red Hook to Atlantic Avenue,
and from the waterfront to
Prospect Park, was known as
“South Brooklyn” — a geographically
confusing term,
given that the neighborhood
was located in the northwestern
part of the borough.
That label dated back to the
era when Kings County was a
patchwork of towns, but ended
when creatives and professionals
snatched up historic
brownstones, and sought to
distinguish their communities
from the working-class associations
of South Brooklyn,
with real estate interests eager
to play along.
Those who settled in the
enclave bordered by Smith
Street, Atlantic Avenue, and
Warren Streets dubbed the
area Boerum Hill — named
for the Boerum family colonial
farm, which occupied
most of the area from the
time of Dutch settlement. The
1790 census shows the family
owned at least two enslaved
people.
In 1959, those living West
of Smith Street revived the area’s
historic name of Cobble
Hill, which had previously
died out by 1880.
Farther south, some residents
of the historic brownstone
neighborhood sandwiched
between Red Hook
and Gowanus sought to distinguish
themselves from
their industrial neighbors
with a new identity, and came
up with Carroll Gardens
— named after the neighborhood’s
uniquely long front
gardens that lined some of its
Brownstone blocks, and for
Charles Carroll, the only Catholic
signer of the Declaration
of Independence, who already
had Carroll Street and Carroll
Park named for him.
Red Hook, for its part,
maintained the same name
since European settlement
despite being a part of South
Brooklyn. Its name was an anglicization
of the Dutch Roode
Hooek after the abundant red
clay in the area and the jagged
peninsula that still juts out
into New York Harbor
Gowanus, named for Gauwane,
a Canarsee Indian, has
also maintained roughly the
same moniker since Dutch occupation.
Park Slope, meanwhile,
understandably would become
named for the hill which
the area sits on, that begins
to slope downward from the
park.
(Top) The Flatbush Reformed Church, once the heart of the Dutch town of
V’Lacke Bos (Above) A housing development in Canarsie in 1946.
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