Gravesend, Brooklyn

Gravesend (pronounced "GRAVES end", not "grave SEND") is a neighborhood in the south-central section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, USA.

The derivation of the name is unclear. Some speculate that it was named after the English seaport of Gravesend, Kent. An alternative explanation suggests that it was named by Willem Kieft for the Dutch settlement of "'s- Gravesande", which means "Count's Beach" or "Count's Sand".

Gravesend was one of the original towns in the Dutch colony of New Netherland and became one of the six original towns of Kings County in colonial New York. 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 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 was granted to the English settlers by Governor Willem Kieft, December 19, 1645.

Gravesend Town encompassed 7,000 acres (28 km²) in southern Kings County, including the entire island of Coney Island, which was originally the town's common lands on the Atlantic Ocean, 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 wetlands and sandhill dunes along the shore of Gravesend Bay

Geography

The modern neighborhood of Gravesend lies between Coney Island Avenue to the east, Stillwell Avenue to the west, Kings Highway to the north, and Coney Island Creek and Shore 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, and across Shore Parkway lies Brighton Beach. 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 Gravesend Cemetery, 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 system: the D elevated line (also called the BMT West End Line), at the 25th Avenue and Bay 50th Street stations; the F elevated line (also called the IND Culver Line), at the Kings Highway, Avenue U, and Avenue X stations, and the N open-cut line, (also called the BMT Sea Beach Line), at the Kings Highway, Avenue U, and Gravesend/86th Street stations.

History

Early history

The first known European to set foot in the area that would become Gravesend was Henry Hudson, whose ship, the Half Moon, landed on Coney Island in the fall of 1609. The island and its environs were at that time inhabited by five Native American tribes--the Narriockh, the Mannahanning,the Massebackhun, the Morpeesah, and the Makeepaca. To them the area was known as Savanehachee, "the sea-bounded plain."

The land subsequently became part of the New Netherland Colony, and in 1643 it was granted to Lady Deborah Moody, an English ex-patriot who hoped to establish a community where she and her followers could practice their Anabaptist 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. 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 many ostracized or controversial groups, such as the Quakers, who briefly made their home in the town before being chased out by New Netherland governor Peter Stuyvesant, who was wary of Gravesend's open acceptance of "heretical" sects.

In 1654 the people of Gravesend purchased Coney Island from the local natives for about $15 worth of seashells, guns, and gunpowder.

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, Gravesend Race Track, and Brighton Beach Race Course) in the late 19th century, and the blossoming of Coney Island into a popular vacation spot, the town was transformed into a (relatively) bustling resort community.

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 1870’s to the 1890’s McKane cultivated Coney Island (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 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 -style politician in the tradition of Boss Tweed. 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.”

In the fall of 1893 McKane’s hubris finally got the better of him when he refused to allow town voter registries (which of course had been falsified) to be audited by agents of the Brooklyn Supreme Court--dismissing them with his most famous utterance, “Injunctions don’t go here!” A riot erupted outside of Gravesend town hall (which McKane had built himself) and several of the Brooklyn court agents were beaten and thrown in jail. Early the following year McKane was found guilty of voter fraud and sentenced to six years hard labor at 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 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, the opening of which ushered in Coney Island’s golden age.

Later years

Although Coney Island continued to be a major tourist attraction throughout the 20th century, the closing of Gravesend’s great racetracks in the century’s first decade caused the rest of the old town to recede back into obscurity. In time it became a non-descript working class Brooklyn neighborhood, which it remains to this day.

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. Even after the abolition of slavery, however, a number of African Americans continued to live in the area. Later, with the coming of new immigrant groups, Irish, Italian, and Jewish residents were added to Gravesend's rosters. The opening of the large race tracks, all of which were staffed heavily by African Americans, saw an increase in the black population as well. The most recent immigrant groups to dominate Gravesend are Russians, Ukranians, Chinese, and Mexicans.

In 2008, The New York Times reported that the neighborhood had become particularly popular among Sephardic Jews.

Facts

• Playwright Arthur Miller grew up in a modest house not far from Washington Cemetery in Gravesend. Mob Boss Carlo Gambino 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 Afternoon happened in Gravesend (although the movie was not filmed there)
• 25-year-old journalist, and author of "Destiny for a Tragedy," Annamarya Scaccia (also spelled Annamaria) is a native of Gravesend.

Gallery

References

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) "