Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn

A cobblestone street on Hudson Avenue in Vinegar Hill

Vinegar Hill[1] is a neighborhood in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City on the East River Waterfront between Dumbo[1] and the Brooklyn Navy Yard.[2] The neighborhood is locally governed by Brooklyn Community Board 2 and is policed by the NYPD's 84th[3] Precinct.

Vinegar Hill gets its name from the Battle of Vinegar Hill, an engagement near Enniscorthy during the Irish Rebellion of 1798.[4] Originally settled by Irish immigrants, this community has maintained its 19th-century look while facing modernization and development from all sides.

Vinegar Hill stretches from the East River Waterfront to Front Street and from the Brooklyn Navy Yard to Bridge Street, roughly comprising a six block area. Before the construction of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in the 1950s, Vinegar Hill's area was significantly larger, extending south to Tillary Street, including what is now known as RAMBO. The neighborhood also includes the New York City Housing Authority's Farragut Houses.

Most of Vinegar Hill consists of 19th century Federal Style and Greek Revival style homes mixed with industrial buildings. The streets on Hudson Avenue, Plymouth, Water and Front are made of cobblestones.

Vinegar Hill in 1883 from the tower of the Brooklyn Bridge

The Vinegar Hill area includes the Vinegar Hill Historic District[5][6][7] and is home to the Con Edison Hudson Avenue Substation.

On the corner of Evans and Little Streets is Quarters A, the Commandant's House, a Federal Style mansion which was once home to Commodore Matthew C. Perry.[8]

History

Before 17th Century

The Canarsee Indians[5][7] were the first inhabitants of both downtown and western Brooklyn. The Canarsee were members of the Algonquian who occupied the Atlantic seaboard from Canada to North Carolina.[9] They established their villages close to the water including the higher ground near the Wallabout Bay that they called Rinnegokonck.[5][7] In the seventeenth century, European explorers arrived on the land and started doing business with Native Americans.

17th Century

In the beginning of the seventeenth century, the primary residents of Vinegar Hill were Canarsee Indians. Dutch settlers began arriving in 1637 along the waterfront area up, up to Fulton street.[1] The land was sold by the Indians to Joris Jansen Rapalje. Rapelje acquired the land for farming purposes; it was renamed to Breuckelen circa 1646. The first ferry began operating from the northern point of Fulton street few years earlier in 1642. It connected the land of Breuckelen with Manhattan, the route spanning the East River.

In 1674 the English subjects, under the rule of King Charles II, took control over the land during the events of the Third Anglo-Dutch War. Then, Kings County consisted of six regions: Brooklyn, Bushwick, Flatbush, Flatlands, Gravesend, New Utrecht. The Vinegar Hill district was also part of Brooklyn.[7]

East river side of Brooklyn and present Vinegar Hill area in 1767

18th Century

Commissioners of Forfeiture took hold of the land from Joris Jansen Rapalje and sold the area of Gold street to Comfort and Joshua Sands in 1784. Sands were planning to develop the land as a summer place for New Yorkers.[10] They built a lot of blocks for a community that was called “Olympia” in 1787.[11] In the late eighteenth century John Jackson bought 100 acres around of the waterfront area near the Wallabout Bay from Remsen estate and built there his own shipyard. He also built houses for the shipyard workers. In 1801 Jackson sold the area around Wallabout Bay to the government for use as a Navy Yard.

The historical reminder of the Sands family and Jackson are still seen on the maps as names of the streets in the Vinegar Hill area.[12]

Demographics

Many Irish immigrants lived in Vinegar Hill and worked in the Navy Yard in 1798.[4]

References

Building on corner of Hudson and Plymouth
  1. 1 2 3 Reiss, Marcia (2001). Fulton Ferry Landing, DUMBO, Vinegar Hill neighborhood history guide. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Historical Society.
  2. ↑ Bernardo, Leonard & Weiss, Jennifer (2006). Brooklyn by Name. United States of America: New York University Press. p. 37. ISBN 0-8147-9946-9.
  3. ↑ 84th Precinct, NYPD.
  4. 1 2 Glueck, Grace & Gardner, Paul (1997). Brooklyn People and Places, Past and Present. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated. p. 104. ISBN 0-8109-8158-0.
  5. 1 2 3 http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/reports/VINEGAR_HILL_HISTORIC_DISTRICT.pdf
  6. ↑ http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/maps/vinegar_hill.pdf
  7. 1 2 3 4 Presa, Donald G. (January 14, 1997). "Vinegar Hill Historic District, Designation Report" (PDF). NYC.gov. New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
  8. ↑ http://focus.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NHLS/Text/74001252.pdf
  9. ↑ Jaffe, Herman J. (1979). The Canarsee Indians: The Original Inhabitants. Brooklyn USA: The Fourth Largest City In America (Brooklyn: Brooklyn College Press). pp. 46–55.
  10. ↑ Johnson, Allen (1964). Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. pp. 341–342.
  11. ↑ The Olympia Settlement in Early Brooklyn. New York. 1929.
  12. ↑ Who Was Who in America. Chicago: The A.N. Marquis Co. 1963. p. 462.

Further reading

An old notice board on Evans Street

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn.

Coordinates: 40°42′09″N 73°58′52″W / 40.702553°N 73.981086°W / 40.702553; -73.981086

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