Mill Basin, Brooklyn

Mill Basin from the Belt Parkway drawbridge

Mill Basin is an affluent residential neighborhood^[1] in New York City in the southern portion of the borough of Brooklyn lying along Jamaica Bay and bounded to the north by Avenue U, and to the east, south, and west by the Mill Basin/Mill Island Inlet. The area is part of Brooklyn Community Board 18.^[2]

History

The area was called Equandito (Broken Lands) by the local Lenape Native Americans, who sold it in 1664 to John Tilton, Jr. and Samuel Spicer.^[3] During the seventeenth century it became part of Flatlands, and tide mills were built on it;^[4][3] the land was owned from 1675 by Jan Martense Schenck and between 1818 and 1870 by the wife of General Philip S. Crooke. The Crooke-Schenck House, which stood at East 63rd Street, was dismantled in 1952 and later reassembled as a museum exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. The area retained its rural character until Robert L. Crooke built a lead-smelting plant in 1890. The Crooke Smelting Company was bought out by the National Lead Company, and Crooke sold the remainder of the land to the firm of McNulty and Fitzgerald, which erected bulkheads and filled in the marshes.^[3]

Until the early twentieth century, the chief resources were the abundant crabs, oysters, and clams in Jamaica Bay.^[3] In 1906, the Flatbush Improvement Company brought marshland and engaged the firm of Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific to dredge creeks and fill in meadows. Eventually, the parcel had an area of 332 acres (1.34 km²) and was fit for industrial development, and within a decade National Lead, Gulf Refining, and other leading firms engaged in heavy industry opened plants there. Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific bought the land in 1909 and built three large drydocks employing a thousand workers; it also began promoting Jamaica Bay as a major harbor but failed to attract a large volume of shipping. A project begun in 1913 and completed in 1923 to extend Flatbush Avenue to the Rockaway Inlet provided an additional 2,700 feet (820 m) of dock facilities and a strip of land for a road across the marshes. In 1915, a channel was dredged to the main channel of Jamaica Bay, and a bulkhead and wharfage platform were built on the mainland side of Mill Creek. By 1919, Mill Island was the site of at least six manufacturing and commercial concerns. During the late 1920s and 1930s, the docks were rented to a number of small industrial firms. The neighborhood remained a grimy industrial area for thirty years, but its further development was hindered when plans for rail service to the rest of Brooklyn went unrealized.^[4]

Residential development began after World War II, when Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific sold to the firm of Flatbush Park Homes the land bounded to the north by Avenue U, to the east by East 68th Street and East Mill Basin/Mill Island, to the south by Basset Avenue, and to the west by Strickland Avenue and Mill Avenue. Brick bungalows were built in the late 1940s and early 1950s, many of which were later replaced by large, custom-built, detached one-family houses on lots measuring fifty by one hundred feet.^[4] As late as the 1960s, the area was still a swamp.^[4][3]

Community

From the 1950s through the 1980s, the area was mainly Italian, but the predominant communities today are Russians and Israelis.^[3]

The community has evolved to include some of New York City's most opulent houses.^[4][3] Most of the housing stock is new, and many waterfront houses include docks, water views, or high ceilings. Prices of houses often range in the millions.^[5] In Georgetown, in northern Mill Basin, there are two-family brick townhouses with overhanging balconies and awnings.^[4] In Mill Island, the peninsular part of Mill Basin, houses are more expensive then in the rest of the neighborhood; by contrast, the cheapest houses are on the northwest corner.^[5]

Some lead factories, built in the 20th century by Dutch businessmen, still remain standing, but many are derelict.^[5] Commercial activities, mainly family-owned shops and restaurants, are located mainly along Strickland Avenue and Avenue U.^[5] Chain stores are located in the nearby Kings Plaza shopping mall.^[5]

Mill Basin Drawbridge

Bridge in closed position

The Mill Basin Bridge is a double leaf trunnion bascule bridge supporting the Belt Parkway over Mill Basin. Each leaf carries six lanes of traffic—three in each direction. There is a sidewalk on each side of the leaf; the eastern or downstream one being part of the Shore Parkway Greenway.^[6] Built in the 1940s, the bridge, which cost $1.4 million, is the only drawbridge on the Belt Parkway. The New York City Department of Transportation reconstructed the Belt Parkway Bridge over Mill Basin in late 2006. The bridge was constructed in 1942 and had outlived its useful service life. Due to the effects of age, weather and increased traffic volume, reconstruction was deemed necessary. The reconstruction work was accomplished in two stages.

In 2013, the city proposed a 60-foot (18 m)-high fixed bridge to replace the aging span. The new bridge will also feature shoulders and wider lanes, which the drawbridge was not built with.^[7]

Transportation

Mill Basin is served by the B3, B41, B47, B100 local bus lines, and the BM1 express bus line.^[8]

References

1. Demographics.aspx Mill Basin Demographics
2. Brooklyn Community Boards, New York City. Accessed December 31, 2007.
3. Sheftell, Jason (2008-05-13). "Brooklyn neighborhood has Park Avenue beat". NY Daily News. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
4. Hughes, C. J. (2009-05-01). "Mill’s Long Gone, but the Basin’s Still Full". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
5. Lefkowitz, Melanie (2012-06-23). "Mill Basin, Home to Boat Slips in Backyards". WSJ. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
6. New York City Department of Transportation: Mill Basin Bridge, accessed June 14, 2006
7. Mixson, Colin (2013-03-01). "Drawbridge up for good". Brooklyn Daily. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
8. http://web.mta.info/nyct/maps/busbkln.pdf

Coordinates: 40°36′36″N 73°54′40″W / 40.61000°N 73.91111°W