WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES AUGUST 9, 2018 25
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
The big rock that helped shaped the
Brooklyn/Queens border in Ridgewood
BY THE OLD TIMER
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Many of The Old Timer’s
readers have often asked
about the borderline between
Brooklyn and Queens, which
nowadays has evolved into a question
about the border between Ridgewood
and Bushwick.
If you look on a map of New York
City, Brooklyn and Queens have two
natural borders: the Newtown Creek
to the north and Jamaica Bay to the
south. The landlocked portion of the
boundary has shift ed time and again
— street by street, block by block —
through the generations.
Nowhere has this borderline
changed more oft en than in Ridgewood,
oft en for political purposes, and the
changes themselves triggered some
testy battles between the two counties.
One can fi nd a reminder of such a
battle in the form of a boulder dating
back to the Ice Age in the rear yard of
the Onderdonk House in Ridgewood.
Arbitration Rock, as it is called, helped
settle decades of border disputes
during the colonial period between
the towns of Bushwick and Newtown
(Ridgewood’s birth name) and, subsequently,
Kings and Queens counties.
All parties involved in the border
dispute formed the boundary in January
1769 based on the rock’s location about
300 feet northwest of the Onderdonk
House, where warehouses north of
Flushing Avenue now stand. For decades
thereaft er, the border based on
Arbitration Rock defi ned many property
disputes among nearby owners, but the
boulder’s topographical importance was
diminished in 1898 aft er Brooklyn and
Queens became part of New York City.
In 1925, the Brooklyn-Queens border
changed again because the line, as
it was in the middle of city blocks in the
still-developing area, now ran through
entire buildings, complicating real estate
tax assessments and the formation
of electoral districts.
The revised border, starting from
the Newtown Creek and going south,
crossed Metropolitan Avenue and ran
down Onderdonk Avenue, then along
the Long Island Rail Road’s Bushwick
branch and southeast on Seneca Avenue
to Flushing Avenue.
Continuing in a south to southwesterly
fashion, the border then
ran through the middle of Flushing
Avenue to Cypress Avenue; Cypress
Avenue to Menahan Street; Menahan
Street to St. Nicholas Avenue; St. Nicholas
Avenue to Gates Avenue; Gates
Avenue to Wyckoff Avenue; Wyckoff
Avenue to Eldert Street; Eldert Street
to Irving Avenue; and Irving Avenue
to Most Holy Trinity Cemetery and
the Cemetery of the Evergreens. The
border was woven between the many
cemeteries near Highland Park
before reaching Cypress Hills and
Woodhaven.
Because of this change, approximately
2,543 people who formerly resided
in Queens were shift ed into Brooklyn,
and 135 people who formerly resided
in Brooklyn were shift ed into Queens.
It was a relatively painless transformation,
and Arbitration Rock would
become an afterthought for many
decades. It was actually buried in 1930
below Onderdonk Avenue as part of
the road’s reconstruction.
Toward the end of the 20th century,
historians’ interest in the rock’s locations
were piqued, and aft er a seven-year
hunt, the boulder was located and unearthed
from Onderdonk Avenue.
Ironically, that triggered another
battle regarding where the big rock
would be placed. Then-Borough President
Claire Shulman initially wanted
Arbitration Rock placed near Kew Gardens,
the seat of Queens’ government;
historians and Brooklynites, however,
wanted the rock at the Onderdonk
House, closer to its original location.
Aft er much — for lack of a better
term, arbitration — the parties agreed
to place Arbitration Rock on the Onderdonk
House grounds in 2001. It
stands there today as a reminder to
future generations of its importance
in our neighborhood’s history and
borderline.
Reprinted from the Aug. 27, 2015 issue
of the Ridgewood Times.
* * *
If you have any memories and photos
that you’d like to share about “Our
Neighborhood:The Way it Was,” write
to The Old Timer, c/o Ridgewood Times,
62-70 Fresh Pond Rd., Ridgewood, NY
11385, or send an email to editorial@
ridgewoodtimes.com. All mailed pictures
will be carefully returned upon
request.
Greater Ridgewood Historical Society historians Linda Monte and George Miller stand next to Arbitration Rock after it
was unearthed in 1999.
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