Gravesend, Brooklyn
Encyclopedia
Gravesend is a neighborhood in the south-central section of the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
borough
Borough (New York City)
New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...
of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
The derivation of the name is unclear. Some speculate that it was named after the English seaport of Gravesend, Kent
Gravesend, Kent
Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. It is the administrative town of the Borough of Gravesham and, because of its geographical position, has always had an important role to play in the history and communications of this part of...
. An alternative explanation suggests that it was named by Willem Kieft
Willem Kieft
Willem Kieft was a Dutch merchant and director-general of New Netherland , from 1638 until 1647. He formed the council of twelve men, the first representative body in New Netherland, but ignored its advice...
for the Dutch settlement of "'s- Gravesande", which means "Count's Beach" or "Count's Sand". There is also a town in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
called 's-Gravenzande
's-Gravenzande
s-Gravenzande is a town in the Dutch province of South Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Westland, and lies about 12 km southwest of The Hague. Until 2004 it was a separate municipality and covered an area of 20.77 km² .In 2001, the town of 's-Gravenzande had 15241 inhabitants...
.
Gravesend was one of the original towns in the Dutch colony of New Netherland
New Netherland
New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod...
and became one of the six original towns of Kings County
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
in colonial New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. It was the only English chartered town in what became Kings County and was designated the "Shire Town" when the English assumed control, as it was the only one where records could be kept in English. Courts were removed to Flatbush
Flatbush, Brooklyn
Flatbush is a community of the Borough of Brooklyn, a part of New York City, consisting of several neighborhoods.The name Flatbush is an Anglicization of the Dutch language Vlacke bos ....
in 1685. The former name survives, and is now associated with a neighborhood in Brooklyn. Gravesend is notable for being founded by a woman, Lady Deborah Moody; a land patent
Land patent
A land patent is a land grant made patent by the sovereign lord over the land in question. To make a such a grant “patent”, such a sovereign lord must document the land grant, securely sign and seal the document and openly publish the same to the public for all to see...
was granted to the English settlers by Governor Willem Kieft
Willem Kieft
Willem Kieft was a Dutch merchant and director-general of New Netherland , from 1638 until 1647. He formed the council of twelve men, the first representative body in New Netherland, but ignored its advice...
, December 19, 1645. A prominent early settler was Anthony Janszoon van Salee
Anthony Janszoon van Salee
Anthony Janszoon van Salee was the son of Salé President Jan Janszoon. He was an original settler of and prominent landholder, merchant, and creditor in New Netherlands. van Salee was New York's first Muslim, and arguably one of the first in the New World...
.
Gravesend Town encompassed 7,000 acres (28 km²) in southern Kings County, including the entire island
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
of Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
, which was originally the town's common lands on the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
, divided up, as was the town itself, into 41 parcels for the original patentees. When the town was first laid out, almost half were salt marsh
Salt marsh
A salt marsh is an environment in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and salt water or brackish water, it is dominated by dense stands of halophytic plants such as herbs, grasses, or low shrubs. These plants are terrestrial in origin and are essential to the stability of the salt marsh...
wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
s and sandhill
Sandhill
A sandhill is a type of ecological community or xeric wildfire-maintained ecosystem. It is not the same as a sand dune. It features very short fire return intervals, one to five years. Without fire, sandhills undergo ecological succession and become more oak dominated.Entisols are the typical...
dunes along the shore of Gravesend Bay.
As of 2007, Gravesend had a population of 181,651.
Geography
Coney Island Avenue
Coney Island Avenue is a roadway in the New York City borough of Brooklyn that runs north-south for a distance of roughly five miles, almost parallel to Ocean Parkway. It begins at Brighton Beach Avenue in Coney Island and goes north to Park Circle at the southwest corner of Prospect Park, where...
to the east, Stillwell Avenue to the west, Kings Highway
Kings Highway (Brooklyn)
Kings Highway is a broad avenue that passes mostly through areas in the southern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The west end is at Bay Parkway and 78th Street. East of Ocean Avenue the street becomes mostly residential, tending generally east, then northeast, then north through...
to the north, and Coney Island Creek
Coney Island Creek
Coney Island Creek encompasses two sea inlets in Brooklyn, New York City, one separating Coney Island from the neighborhoods of Gravesend and Bath Beach, the other separating the neighborhoods of Sheepshead Bay and Manhattan Beach...
and Shore Parkway
Belt Parkway
The Belt System is a series of connected limited-access highways that form a belt-like circle around the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. The system comprises four officially separate parkways; however, three of the four are signed as the Belt Parkway...
to the south. To the east of Gravesend is Sheepshead Bay, to the northeast Midwood, to the northwest Bensonhurst, and to the west Bath Beach. To the south, across Coney Island Creek, lies the neighborhood of Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
, and across Shore Parkway lies Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach is an oceanside neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. As of 2000, it has a population of 75,692 with a total of 31,228 households.-Location:...
. The neighborhood center is still the four blocks bounded by Village Road South, Village Road East, Village Road North, and Van Sicklen Street, where the Moody House and Van Sicklen family cemetery are located. Next to, and parallel with the van Sicklen Family Cemetery is the Old Gravesend Cemetery
Old Gravesend Cemetery
Old Gravesend Cemetery is a historic cemetery at Gravesend Neck Road and McDonald Avenue in Gravesend, Brooklyn, New York, New York. The cemetery was founded about 1658 and contains the graves of a number of the original patentees and their families...
, where Lady Moody is purported to be interred. (Gravesend Cemetery's most exotic occupant is Egyptian émigré Mohammad Ben Misoud, who was part of a Coney Island attraction and was afforded a proper Muslim funeral upon his death in August, 1896.)
Gravesend is served by three lines of the New York City Subway
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...
system: the D
D (New York City Subway service)
The D Sixth Avenue Express is a rapid transit service of the New York City Subway. It is colored orange on route signs, station signs, and the official subway map, since it uses the IND Sixth Avenue Line through Manhattan....
elevated line (also called the BMT West End Line
BMT West End Line
The BMT West End Line is a line of the New York City Subway, serving the Brooklyn, communities of Borough Park, New Utrecht, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach and Coney Island. The D train operates on the line at all times, providing service to Manhattan and the Bronx via the IND Sixth Avenue Line...
), at the 25th Avenue and Bay 50th Street stations; the F
F (New York City Subway service)
The F Sixth Avenue Local is a rapid transit service of the New York City Subway. It is colored orange on route signs, station signs, and the official subway map, since it runs on the IND Sixth Avenue Line through Manhattan....
elevated line (also called the IND Culver Line
IND Culver Line
The IND Culver Line is a rapid transit line of the B Division of the New York City Subway, extending from Downtown Brooklyn south to Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City, United States...
), at the Kings Highway, Avenue U, and Avenue X stations, and the N
N (New York City Subway service)
The N Broadway Local is a service of the New York City Subway. Its route bullet is colored yellow, which appears on station signs and the NYC Subway map, as it represents a service provided on the BMT Broadway Line through Manhattan....
open-cut line, (also called the BMT Sea Beach Line
BMT Sea Beach Line
The BMT Sea Beach Line is a rapid transit line of the BMT division of the New York City Subway, connecting the BMT Fourth Avenue Line subway at 59th Street via a four-track wide open cut to Coney Island in Brooklyn...
), at the Kings Highway, Avenue U, and Gravesend/86th Street stations. Gravesend is patrolled by the NYPD's 60, 61, and 62 Precincts.
Early history
The first known European to set foot in the area that would become Gravesend was Henry HudsonHenry Hudson
Henry Hudson was an English sea explorer and navigator in the early 17th century. Hudson made two attempts on behalf of English merchants to find a prospective Northeast Passage to Cathay via a route above the Arctic Circle...
, whose ship, the Half Moon, landed on Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
in the fall of 1609.
The island and its environs were at that time inhabited by bands of Lenape
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
people.
The land subsequently became part of the New Netherland
New Netherland
New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod...
Colony, and in 1643 it was granted to Lady Deborah Moody, an English expatriate who hoped to establish a community where she and her followers could practice their Anabaptist
Anabaptist
Anabaptists are Protestant Christians of the Radical Reformation of 16th-century Europe, and their direct descendants, particularly the Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites....
beliefs free from persecution. Due to clashes with the local native tribes the town wasn't completed until 1645. But when the town charter was finally signed and granted it became one of the first such titles to ever be awarded to a woman in the new world.
The town Lady Moody established was one of the earliest planned communities in America. It consisted of a perfect square surrounded by a 20-foot-high wooden palisade. The town was bisected by two main roads, Gravesend Road (now McDonald Avenue) running from north to south, and Gravesend Neck Road, running from east to west (Map). These roads divided the town into four quadrants which were subdivided into ten plots of land each (The grid of the original town can still be seen on maps and aerial photographs of the area). At the center of town, where the two main roads met, a town hall was constructed where town meetings were held once a month.
The religious freedom of early Gravesend made it a desirable home for ostracized or controversial groups, such as the Quakers, who briefly made their home in the town before being chased out by New Netherland
New Netherland
New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod...
director general Petrus Stuyvesant, who was wary of Gravesend's open acceptance of "heretical" sects.
In 1654 the people of Gravesend purchased Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
from the local natives for about $15 worth of seashells, guns, and gunpowder.
In August of 1776 Gravesend Bay was the landing site of thousands of British soldiers and German mercenaries from their staging area on Staten Island, leading to the Battle of Long Island
Battle of Long Island
The Battle of Long Island, also known as the Battle of Brooklyn or the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, fought on August 27, 1776, was the first major battle in the American Revolutionary War following the United States Declaration of Independence, the largest battle of the entire conflict, and the...
(also Battle of Brooklyn). The troops met little resistance from the Continental Army advance troops under General George Washington then headquartered in New York City (at the time limited to the very tip of Manhattan Island). The battle would prove to be the largest fought in the entire war.
Gilded Age
Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries Gravesend remained a sleepy Long Island suburb.Then, with the opening of three prominent racetracks (Sheepshead Bay Race Track
Sheepshead Bay Race Track
Sheepshead Bay Race Track was an American Thoroughbred horse racing facility built on the site of the Coney Island Jockey Club at Sheepshead Bay, New York...
, Gravesend Race Track
Gravesend Race Track
Gravesend Race Track at Gravesend on Coney Island, New York was a Thoroughbred horse racing facility built by the Brooklyn Jockey Club as a result of the backing of the wealthy racing stable owners, the Dwyer Brothers. Philip J...
, and Brighton Beach Race Course
Brighton Beach Race Course
The Brighton Beach Race Course was an American Thoroughbred horse racing facility opened at Brighton Beach, Coney Island, New York on June 28, 1879 by the Brighton Beach Racing Association. Headed by real estate developer William A. Engeman, who owned the Brighton Beach Hotel, the one-mile race...
) in the late 19th century, and the blossoming of Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
into a popular vacation spot, the town was transformed into a (relatively) bustling resort community
Resort town
A resort town, sometimes called a resort city or resort destination, is a town or area where tourism or vacationing is a primary component of the local culture and economy...
.
The man who spearheaded this metamorphosis was John Y. McKane, a Sheepshead Bay carpenter and contractor who rose to become the Gravesend town supervisor, chief of police, chief of detectives, fire commissioner, schools commissioner, public lands commissioner, superintendent of the Sheepshead Bay Methodist Church, head tenor of the church choir, and, last but not least, Santa Claus at the annual Sabbath school Christmas celebration.
From the 1870s to the 1890s McKane cultivated Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
(which at that time was part of the township of Gravesend) as a pleasure ground, building much of it up, literally, with his own hands. As town constable
Constable
A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions.-Etymology:...
he expanded the Gravesend police force considerably and could often be found patrolling the beaches himself armed with a pistol and an oversized billy club, (neither of which he was shy about using). But despite his honest beginnings, McKane quickly morphed into a corrupt Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society...
-style politician in the tradition of Boss Tweed
Boss Tweed
William Magear Tweed – often erroneously referred to as William Marcy Tweed , and widely known as "Boss" Tweed – was an American politician most notable for being the "boss" of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th century...
. He used the pretense of town permits to extort tribute from every business, large and small, on Coney Island, and while he presented himself publicly as a champion of law and order, privately he was profiting mightily from the many brothels and gambling parlors that thrived in his bailiwick. It was during McKane’s reign that Coney Island came to be known by many as “Sodom by the Sea.”
McKane also rigged the political machine in Gravesend by stuffing the town voter registries with as many names as he could scrape up. Seasonal migrant workers, criminals,
even the corpses in the town cemetery were eligible to vote in McKane's Gravesend. And vote they all did, according to McKane's will. Finally, on the eve of the 1893 election, William Gaynor, a lawyer running for Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice, decided to put McKane's feet to the fire. As he was entitled to do by law, Gaynor dispatched over 20 Republican observers to examine the Gravesend voter registries and oversee the voting in all six districts of the town. But when the observers reached Gravesend town hall at dawn on election day, McKane, along with a large group of policemen and cronies, confronted them. When the observers balked and produced injunctions from the Brooklyn Supreme Court McKane supposedly declared "injunctions don't go here" and ordered the men away. A scuffle ensued and five of the observers were beaten and arrested. To Mckane it was just another election day dust-up, but to the rest of the nation it was seen as an outrage (some even comparing it to an act of civil war). Early the following year McKane was brought to justice and sentenced to six years hard labor in Sing Sing prison. He was released near the end of the century and died of a stroke in his Sheepshead Bay home in 1899.
The removal of McKane paved the way for Gravesend and Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
to become part of the city of Brooklyn, which they did in 1894. It also allowed one of McKane’s most hated enemies, George C. Tilyou, to create one of Coney Island’s first amusement parks, Steeplechase Park
Steeplechase Park
Steeplechase Park was an amusement park in the Coney Island area of Brooklyn, New York from 1897 to 1964. It was one of the leading attractions of its day and one of the most influential amusement parks of all time.-Beginnings:...
, the opening of which ushered in Coney Island’s golden age.
Later years
New York City Housing Authority
The New York City Housing Authority provides public housing for low- and moderate-income residents throughout the five boroughs of New York City. NYCHA also administers a citywide Section 8 Leased Housing Program in rental apartments...
. There is also crime around McDonald Avenue, under the elevated F Line, in the Southern part of Gravesend. The southern area of the Neighborhood has seen an increase in crime in its later years. In 2009, the neighborhood saw 10 murders, putting it above national average. The neighborhood matched its 2009 murder total, with 10 in 2010. Beginning in the 1990s, with an influx of Sephardic (mostly Syrian
Syrian Jews
Syrian Jews are Jews who inhabit the region of the modern state of Syria, and their descendants born outside Syria. Syrian Jews derive their origin from two groups: from the Jews who inhabited the region of today's Syria from ancient times Syrian Jews are Jews who inhabit the region of the modern...
) Jews, the northeast section of the neighborhood saw the development of upscale single-family homes at prices upwards of $1 Million.
Ethnic makeup
Gravesend's earliest non-native settlers were predominantly English and Dutch. While slavery was legal in New York, the town also had a significant African American population, many of whom remained in the area even with the abolition of slavery. The now-defunct Gravesend Race Track opened on August 26, 1886 and hired mainly black workers who ended up moving into nearby homes. Later, there was a surge in Irish, Italian, and Jewish residents.Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese, Puerto Rican, and Mexican immigrants are the most recent residents to share the neighborhood.
In 2008, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
reported that the neighborhood had become particularly popular among Sephardic Jews
Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...
: see Syrian Jewish communities of the United States
Syrian Jewish communities of the United States
The Syrian Jewish communities of the United States are a collection of communities of Syrian Jews, mostly founded at the beginning of the 20th century. The largest are in Brooklyn, New York, Deal, New Jersey and Miami, Florida...
.
Facts
- Playwright Arthur MillerArthur MillerArthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
grew up in a modest house not far from Washington Cemetery in Gravesend. Mob Boss Carlo GambinoCarlo Gambino"Don" Carlo Gambino, was a Sicilian mafioso who became Boss of the Gambino crime family, that still bears his name today. After the 1957 Apalachin Convention he unexpectedly seized control of the Commission of the American Mafia. Gambino was known for being low-key and secretive...
also lived much of his life in Gravesend.
- In the late 19th century Gravesend served as a testing ground for the Boynton Bicycle Railroad, the earliest forerunner of the monorail. The BBR consisted of a single-wheeled engine that hauled two double-decker passenger cars along a single track (a second rail above the train, supported by wooden arches, kept it from tipping over). The engine and cars were only four feet wide and were capable of speeds far greater than standard (and much bulkier) trains. In 1889 the BBR began running a short route between the Gravesend Station stop of the Sea Beach Railroad (near the intersection of 86th and west seventh streets) and Brighton Beach in Coney Island, a distance of just over a mile. Despite the smooth and speedy ride the BBR offered riders, it ultimately failed and the test route fell into disuse, along with the Boynton train itself and the shed that was built to house it.
- The bank robbery that inspired the movie Dog Day AfternoonDog Day AfternoonDog Day Afternoon is a 1975 drama film directed by Sidney Lumet, written by Frank Pierson, and produced by Martin Bregman. The film stars Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon, Penny Allen, James Broderick, and Carol Kane. The title refers to the "dog days of summer".The film was...
happened in Gravesend (although the movie was not filmed there)
Sources
- Ierardi, Eric J. , Gravesend: Home of Coney Island
- J. H. French, Gazetteer Of the State of New York (1860)
- (May 4, 1894). "A New Chapter in History" The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Page 4
- (May 4, 1894). "Becoming Wards One By One" The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Page 12
- (August 10, 1896) "Tombstone For The Nubian" The Brooklyn Daily Eagle
- (September 6, 1899) "John Y. McKane Dies" The Brooklyn Daily Eagle
- (September 10, 1899) "Boynton Bicycle Railroad" The Brooklyn Daily Eagle
- (August, 1896 New York Times) "Turk is Buried with Odd Ceremonies"