1 Early Bensonhurst By Matthew Becker, Vaughn Titus and Katie Zaniewska Modern-day Bensonhurst is an urban and multiethnic neighborhood of New York City in southwest Brooklyn. 1 It is the home of many immigrants, and their individual influence on the community continues to shape the neighborhood. Before Bensonhurst became the culturally diverse neighborhood it is today, it was a small suburb, famously called "Bensonhurst-by-the- Sea," that attracted many residents seeking an escape to a quiet life. Even before the quiet suburb, Bensonhurst was a Dutch farming town called New Utrecht and before that, home to Native Americans. The Dutch had a lasting impact on this region, as seen by the community's attempts to preserve the name New Utrecht. The most notable examples are New Utrecht High School, New Utrecht Avenue and the famous Historic New Utrecht Reformed Church. Throughout its history, Bensonhurst has undergone many transformations, and yet the one thing that remains constant is that it has always been significantly impacted by the cultures of the different people who have lived there. The first residents were the Lenape Native Americans, specifically the Canarsie tribe. The Lenape were a peaceful tribe, and strongly believed that nature and geology played a crucial part of their culture. They resided in seasonal camps and primarily went fishing and clamming in the area that became New Utrecht. 2 Because the Lenape were a seasonally nomadic tribe, it is difficult to piece together what exactly happened to them, since there are not many artifacts that
2 that remain. In fact, the earliest written accounts of the tribe were not from the Lenape themselves, but from the notes of European travelers. Once the Dutch discovered the New World, the Lenape established a good trading relationship with them, trading furs for the European goods; however, the Dutch influence had a larger impact on the Lenape than they had first assumed. The Lenape began to unknowingly sell their land in negotiations and deals that later proved to be irreversible according to Dutch law. 3 They became too invested in the fur trade, and began to devote more time to hunting and getting fur, and less time to getting food. This radical change in their routine led to many famines that caused their population to decline. 4 The advanced technology and settlements of the Europeans also deeply affected the Lenape. The dams significantly reduced the amount of wild fish, the farming and agriculture reduced the woodlands, and the presence of thousands of other settlers reduced the supply of wild game available for both settlements. 5 Therefore, the Lenape tribes that remained after the famines became increasingly dependent on colonial foods and goods, and their influence slowly faded away. The Dutch had created six towns that made up the borough we know today: Bushwick, Brooklyn, Flatlands, Gravesend, New Utrecht, and Flatbush. Some of these names still describe a location in Brooklyn, but New Utrecht no longer describes a town. New Utrecht was centered in today s Bensonhurst, specifically 84th Street between 16th and 18th avenues. The community was founded by Anthony Janszoon van Salee, who obtained the right to 200 acres of land. He did little to create a settlement. Cornelius van Werckhoven, a member of the Dutch West Indies Companytook over this plot of land in 1652 but died soon thereafter. 6 One of his associates, Jacques Cortelyou, took over Werckhoven s place. Under him, the town of New Utrecht was truly created. He divided the area into 20 plots of 50 acres to sell to
3 interested families. Nineteen of the plots were claimed by important Dutch families, such as the Benson family, the Cropsey family, the Nostrand family, the Van Pelt family, the Van Brunt family and the DeSille family. 7 By 1657, New Utrecht officially became a town and by 1660, eleven houses were constructed. Governor Peter Stuyvesant visited New Utrecht in February 1660, and ended up requesting increased fortifications against Native American attacks. 8 In 1661, Governor Stuyvesant granted New Utrecht its own charter. Further development of the area solidified New Utrecht as one of the six towns encompassed by Kings County. Most notably, the New Utrecht Reformed Church was built. 9 This church was first suggested by Dutch settlers in 1677. Before that, settlers from New Utrecht would travel to churches in Flatbush, Flatlands and Brooklyn. Construction of the original church building was completed in 1700. It stood next to the Old New Utrecht Cemetery on the corner of 84th Street and 16th Avenue. During the Revolutionary War, it was used by the British as a hospital and as a riding school. In 1828, it was decided that the church should be demolished and rebuilt to better fit the needs of the parishioners. The original octagonal structure was dismantled, and its stones were used to build a new church on 84th Street and 18th Avenue. The church's first parishioners were among the most prominent and influential Dutch families in Brooklyn. Many important Dutch settlers have a grave in the Old New Utrecht Cemetery, but there are also graves dedicated for soldiers who died in the Revolutionary War as well as a section for people of African descent. On August 27, 1664, the English demanded that New Netherland be ceded. There were many disputes, as seen by the numerous Anglo-Dutch Wars, but ultimately New Netherland was forfeited to the British. New Netherland became New York through the Treaty of Westminster. 10 Not much changed for the people living in New Netherland, now New York. New Utrecht still
4 was largely an agricultural community. Many families continued to come to New York, and settled in New Utrecht to farm. By the early 18th century, the new generation of New Amsterdam was no longer predominantly Dutch, and began to show the effects and influence of the English. New York s influence grew under English rule; by the 1740s, New York carried on a more extensive commerce than any town in the English North America provinces. 11 By 1774, New York City had expanded as an influential major city, with many diverse institutions such as King s College (now Columbia University), a hospital, three English churches, three Presbyterian, two Dutch Lutheran, two Dutch Calvinists, French Church, an Anabaptist, a Methodist, a Quaker meeting, a Moravian church, and a Jewish synagogue. 12 It took several decades to build up New Utrecht as a town. New Utrecht was represented in the New York State Assembly for the first time in 1698, 35 years after Stuyvesant called for a charter for New Utrecht. In the years leading up to the turn of the century, Governor Thomas Dongan made a new patent for 27 new residents, which increased the size and population of New Utrecht. Jacques Cortelyou had the town surveyed, and found that one of the plantations was 20 to 30 Morgens. 13 New Utrecht became well known for being the first town to see the British enter New York in 1776, because during the Battle of Long Island the British used New Utrecht as a military base. Because the British won, they continued to use the town as a base for the remainder of the war. This proved to be extremely beneficial for the local businesses and taverns in the area because they profited from the constant presence of soldiers. 14 After the Revolutionary War, New Utrecht continued to be a primarily agricultural neighborhood. Because of this focus on farming, it is no surprise that New Utrecht was also known as the town that owned the most slaves; a total of 185 whites owned 84 slaves, who made
5 up an astonishing 31% of the population. 15 In fact, by 1800 three out of every four whites in New Utrecht owned slaves. 16 In 1835, Arthur W. Benson bought the farmland that the Polhemus family previously owned, and for the next fifteen years began to split up the land into generous plots that were then sold at auctions. 17 The old Benson farm and the land that used to be primarily agricultural and rural finally developed into a suburban neighborhood. These developments attracted many investors who advertised Bensonhurst as a select, quiet and healthy suburb in New York City for people with occupations such as lawyers, bankers and merchants. 18 Almost 340 lots of land were to be sold to the highest bidder, and the neighborhood was restricted to dwellings costing at least $3,000 each and it prohibited all nuisances. 19 Bensonhurst was no longer known as the agricultural farmland of New Utrecht, but rather as Bensonhurst by the sea, and came to be one of the first suburbs in New York City. To make Bensonhurst even more enticing, the West Brooklyn Electric Railroad Company planned on establishing an electric train to run across the neighborhood; however, the company expected many objections from the residents. 20 Its proposition of a new electric road, and eventually an extension of the trolley, was met with much opposition. The residents argued that the electric road would be dangerous to the horses because of the overhead wires and that it would generally spoil the aesthetic appearance of the neighborhood. They also claimed that, according the park commissioners, the company should have secured the consents of at least half of the adjacent property owners, which had not been done. The company retaliated by saying that the railroad company was chartered in 1860, which was before the passage of the acts creating the Brooklyn Park Commissioners. Therefore, the company said it did not have to obey these guidelines. 21 But the residents were not the only ones who continued to object the railroad; the
6 Brooklyn municipal authorities refused to consent to Brooklyn and Coney Island Road erecting the trolley wires along the edges of Prospect Park. They claimed that the wires were unwanted, dangerous, and obstructive. 22 Clearly, the residents of Bensonhurst wanted their suburban neighborhood to remain as it had been when they first purchased property there; however, despite their objections, the trolley was constructed and Bensonhurst became a more urban neighborhood. Along with the trolley, there were a few railroad projects built to further help people get around to different parts of their borough. In 1862, the Brooklyn, Bath, and Coney Island Railroad began. It extended from 25th Street and 5th Avenue (Greenwood) through to the Bath Beach section of Brooklyn. In 1867, the train line extended to Coney Island, the first to do so. On July 18, 1877, the Sea Beach Line began service, also known as the NY&SB. This line ran between 64th Street pier and Bath Junction, allowing the train to run directly through Bensonhurst. The train allowed people to reach further and more vast parts of Brooklyn. 23 The trolley and trains brought a steady inflow of new residents; advertisements said that Bensonhurst was for those who wanted a mix between a suburban and urban life. The two largest groups of people that resided in Bensonhurst after the establishment of the trolley were New York-born whites of Anglo or Irish origin and Irish immigrants. By the 1880s there were approximately 1,700 New York-born residents, and 600 first generation Irish immigrants. 24 Although there were people of other nationalities, such as Prussian, English and German, no other immigrant group was as prominent as the Irish were in the late 1800s. 25 This marked the beginning of a multiethnic community in Bensonhurst, which eventually would become a central feature of the neighborhood. It set the scene for the 20th century, when waves of Italian and Jewish immigrants would move to Bensonhurst and permanently influence the neighborhood.
7 Notes 1 Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 5-13. 2 Ibid. 3 Marshall J. Becker, "Search for the Lenape Indians," Archaeology 35, no. 3 (1982): 10-19. Accessed March 15, 2016. 4 Burrows and Wallace, Gotham, 10. 5 Ibid. 6 Charlotte Rebecca Woglom Bangs, Reminiscences of Old New Utrecht and Gowanus(Brooklyn: Brooklyn Eagle, 1912). 7 Ibid. 8 Ibid.
8 9 "Brooklyn College Excavations at the New Utrecht Reformed Church," Historic NewUtrecht(2002): n.pag. Historic New Utrecht. Web. April 6, 2016. <http://www.historicnewutrecht.org/brooklyn_college_excavations.pdf 10 "History of Brooklyn - Early and Colonial Years," History of Brooklyn - Early and Colonial Years, Thirteen, n.d. http://www.thirteen.org/brooklyn/history/history2.html. Accessed March 3, 2016. 11 Bayrd Still, Mirror for Gotham: New York as Seen by Contemporaries from Dutch Days to the Present(New York: New York University Press,) 1956), 32. 12 Still, Mirror for Gotham, 34-35. 13 Bangs, Reminisces of Old New Utrecht and Gowanus. 14 Burrows and Wallace,Gotham, 44. 15 Ibid., 128. 16 Ibid., 349. 17 "Bensonhurst: The Brooklyn Jewish Historical Initiative (BJHI)," Accessed April 12, 2016. http://brooklynjewish.org/neighborhoods/bensonhurst/. 18 "Classified Ad 4--=no Title," New-York Tribune, July 31, 1888. 19 "To Sell Lots at Bensonhurst-by-the-Sea," New-York Tribune, July 27, 1888. 20 "Affairs in Brooklyn," New-York Tribune, November 1, 1890. 21 "The Trolley System," New York Times,April 9, 1891. 22 "The Trolley Unpopular," New York Times, June 21, 1891. 23 Mark S. Feinman, "Early Rapid Transit in Brooklyn, 1878-1913, www.nycsubway.org, n.d. 24 "New Utrecht-1870." 1879 New Utrecht Census. Accessed April 14, 2016.
9 http://bklyn-genealogy-info.stevemorse.org/census/1870/1870.new.ult.html. 25 Ibid. Bibliography "Affairs in Brooklyn." New-York Tribune, November 1, 1890. Bangs, Charlotte Rebecca Woglom. Reminiscences of Old New Utrecht and Gowanus. Brooklyn: Brooklyn Eagle, 1912. Print. Becker, Marshall J. "Search for the Lenape Indians." Archaeology 35, no. 3 (1982): 10-19. "Bensonhurst: The Brooklyn Jewish Historical Initiative (BJHI)." BJHI. Accessed April 12, 2016. http://brooklynjewish.org/neighborhoods/bensonhurst/. Burrows, Edwin G., and Mike Wallace. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. "Brooklyn College Excavations at the New Utrecht Reformed Church." Historic NewUtrecht (2002): n.pag. Historic New Utrecht. Web. 6 Apr. 2016. <http://www.historicnewutrecht. org/brooklyn_college_excavations.pdf "Classified Ad 4--no Title." New-York Tribune. July 31, 1888. "History of Brooklyn - Early and Colonial Years." History of Brooklyn - Early and Colonial Years. Thirteen, n.d. Web. March 3, 2016http://www.thirteen.org/brooklyn/history/history2.html>. "New Utrecht-1870." 1879 New Utrecht Census. Accessed April 14, 2016. http://bklyn-genealogy-info.stevemorse.org/census/1870/1870.new.ult.html. Rothschild, Nan A. New York City Neighborhoods: The 18th Century. San Diego: Academic,
10 1990. Still, Bayrd. Mirror for Gotham: New York as Seen by Contemporaries from Dutch Days to the Present. New York,:New York University Press, 1956. "The Trolley System." New York Times. April 9, 1891. "The Trolley Unpopular." New York Times. June 21, 1891. "To Sell Lots at Bensonhurst-by-the-Sea." New-York Tribune, July 27, 1888.