Bushwick, Brooklyn

Bushwick is a neighborhood in the northeastern part of Brooklyn, New York City. It is bounded by Bedford-Stuyvesant to the southwest, East Williamsburg to the northwest, Ridgewood, Queens to the northeast and the Cemetery of the Evergreens and other cemeteries to the southeast.

Historical Bushwick

Bushwick Township

Four Villages

In 1638, the Dutch West India Company secured a deed from the Canarsie Indians for the Bushwick area, and Peter Stuyvesant, chartered the area in 1661, naming it "Boswijck," meaning "little town in the woods" or "heavy woods." [2] Its area included the modern day communities of Williamsburg in 1827 and Greenpoint. Bushwick was the last of the original six Dutch towns of Brooklyn to be established within New Netherland.

The community was settled, though unchartered, on Feb. 16, 1660 by fourteen French and Huguenot settlers, a Dutch translator named Peter Jan De Witt[3], and Franciscus the Negro, one of the original eleven slaves brought to New Netherland who had worked his way to freedom [4][5]. The group centered their settlement around a church located near today's Bushwick and Metropolitan Avenues. The major thouroughfare was Woodpoint road, which allowed farmers to bring their goods to the town dock. [6] This original settlement came to be known as Het Dorp by the Dutch, and, later, Bushwick Green by the British.

At the turn of the 19th century, Bushwick consisted of four villages, Green Point, Bushwick Shore [7], later to be known as Williamsburg, Bushwick Green, and Bushwick Crossroads, at the spot today's Bushwick Avenue turns southeast at Flushing Avenue. [8]. The English would take over the six towns three years later and unite the towns under Kings County in 1683.

File:Flooding map.jpg

Modern flood map shoring historical villages and modern thoroughfares

Land Annexation

Bushwick's first major expansion occurred after it annexed The New Lots of Bushwick, a hilly upland originally claimed by the Native Americans in the first treaties they signed with European colonists which providing the settlers rights to the lowland on the water. After the second war between the natives and the settlers broke out, the natives fled, leaving the area to be divided among the six towns in Kings County. Bushwick had the prime location to absorb their new tract of land in a contiguous fahion. New Bushwick Lane (Evergreen Ave), a former native American trail, was a key thouroughfare to access this new tract suitable mostly for potato and cabbage agriculture. [9] This area is bound roughly by Flushing Avenue to the north, and Evergreen Cemetery to the south.

In the 1850's, the New Lots of Bushwick area began to develop. References to the town of Bowronville, a new neighborhood contained within the area south of Lafayette Ave and Stanhope Street begin to appear dating to the 1850's. [10] [11].

Bushwick Shore and Williamsburgh

The area known as Bushwick Shore existed for about 140 years. Bushwick Shore was cut off from the other villages in Bushwick by Bushwick Creek to the north and by Cripplebush, a region of thick, boggy shrubland extending from Wallabout Creek to Newtown Creek, to the south and east. Bushwick residents called Bushwick Shore "the Strand." Farmers and gardeners from the other Bushwick villages sent their goods to Bushwick Shore to be ferried to New York City for sale via a market at present day Grand St. Bushwick Shore's favorable location close to New York City lead to the creation of several farming developments. Originally a 13-acre development within Bushwick Shore, Williamsburgh rapidily expanded during the first half of the nineteenth century and eventually seceeded from Bushwick and form its own independent city. [12]

Early Industry

When Bushwick was founded, it was primarily an area for farming food and tobacco. But as Brooklyn and New York City grew, factories that manufactured sugar, oil, and chemicals were built. The inventor Peter Cooper built a glue manufacturing plant, his first factory, in Bushwick. Immigrants from western Europe joined the original Dutch settlers. The Bushwick Chemical Works, at Metropolitan and Grand Avenues on the English Kills channel, was another early industry among the lime, plaster, and brick works, coal yards, and other factories which developed along the English Kills waterway [13]. In October, 1867, the American Institute awarded The Bushwick Chemical Works the first premium for commercial acids of greatest purity and strength [14]. The Bushwick Glass Company, later to be known as Brookfield glass company established itself in 1869, when a local brewer sold it to James Brookfield [15]. The Bushwick Glass Company made a variety both bottle and jars. Around the same time, in 1868, the Long Island Railroad extended a branch from its hub in Jamaica to the intersection of Montrose and Bushwick Avenues [16], allowing industrialist to easily access raw materials and export finished goods.

In the 1840s and 1850s, a majority of the immigrants were German, which became the dominant population. Bushwick established a considerable brewery industry, including "Brewer's Row": 14 breweries operating in a 14 block area by 1890. Thus, Bushwick was dubbed the "beer capital of the Northeast." As late as 1883, Bushwick maintained open farming land east of Flushing Avenue. [17]. In fact, a synergy developed between the brewers and the farmers during this period, as the dairy farmers collected spent grain and hops for cow feed. The dairy farmers sold the milk, and other dairy products, to consumers in Brooklyn. Both industries supported blacksmiths, wheelrights, and feed stores along Flushing Ave. [18]

Streetcar Suburb

Brownstones on Bushwick Ave.

The first elevated railway in Brooklyn, known as the Lexington Avenue Elevated, opened in [1885]. Its eastern terminus was at the edge of Bushwick, at Gates Avenue and Broadway.[19] This line was extended southeastward into East New York shortly thereafter. By the end of 1889, the Broadway Elevated and the Myrtle Avenue Elevated were completed, enabling easier access to Downtown Brooklyn and Manhattan and the rapid residential development of Bushwick from farmland.

With the success of the brewery industry and the presence of the Els, another wave of European immigrants settled in the neighborhood. Also, parts of Bushwick became affluent. Brewery owners and doctors commissioned mansions along Bushwick and Irving Avenues at the turn of the 20th century. [3]. New York mayor John Hylan kept a townhouse on Bushwick Avenue during this period [20]. Bushwick homes were designed in the Italianate, Neo Greco, Romanesque Revival, and Queen Anne styles by well known architects. Bushwick was a center of culture with several Vaudeville era playhuses, including the Amphion Theatre, the nation's first theatre with electric lighting. [21] The wealth of the neighborhood peaked between World War I and World War II, even when events such as Prohibition and the Great Depression were taking place. After the Great Depression, the German enclave was replaced by a significant proportion of Italian American immigrants in Brooklyn.

Recent History: Decline

Side street south of Flushing Ave.

1950's,'60's, and '70's: White Flight and Economic Depression

After World War II, African Americans and Puerto Rican immigrants, who were poorer and had a lower social class than their white counterparts, began to move into Bushwick. Small apartment buildings were also built to accommodate the incoming residents. The change in demographics spurned a decline. At the same time, locally rising energy costs, advances in transportation, and the invention of the steel can encouraged beer companies to move out of the New York City area. As the breweries all closed, the neighboorhood deteriorated along with much of Brooklyn and New York City. Discussions of urban renewal took place in the 1960s, but never materialized. In 1960 Bushwick was 70 percent white, by 1977 it was over 70 percent Black and Puerto Rican (Goodman 180). One out of every eight buildings were damaged or destroyed by fire every year fom 1969 to 1977 (Goodman 122).

Blackout: Riots and Looting

On the night of July 13, 1977, a major blackout occurred in New York City. Arson, looting, and vandalism followed in poor neighborhoods throughout the city. Bushwick, however, saw some of the most devastating damages and losses. While local owners in the predominantely Puerto Rican Knickerbocker Avenue and Graham Avenue shopping districts were able to defend their stores with force, suburban absentee owners with stores on the Broadway shopping district saw their shops looted and burned. Twenty-seven stores, some of which were of mixed-use, along Broadway had burned (Goodman 104). Looters (and residents who bought from looters) saw the blackout as an opportunity to get what they otherwise could not afford. Fires spread to many residential buildings as well. After the riots were over and the fires were put out, residents saw "some streets that looked like Brooklyn Heights, and others that looked like Dresden in 1945" (Goodman 181): unsafe dwellings and empty lots among surviving buildings. Broadway business space had a 43% Vacancy rate in the wake of the riots. [22]

1980's and '90's: Blight and Poverty

Bushwick was left with a lack of both retail stores and housing, and the neighborhood was at its poorest point. After the blackout, existing residents who could afford to leave left. But new immigrants were coming into the area during the late 1970s and early 1980s, one-third of which were from the Dominican Republic. However, apartment renovation and new construction did not keep pace with the demolition of unsafe buildings, forcing overcrowded conditions at first. As buildings came down, the vacant lots made parts of the neighborhood look and feel desolate, and more residents left. The neighborhood was a hotbed of poverty and crime through the 1980s. During this period, the Knickerbocker Ave shopping distric was nicknamed 'the well' for its seemingly unending supply of drugs. [23]. In the 1990's it remained a poor and relatively dangerous area, with 77 murders, 80 rapes, and 2,242 Robberies in 1990. [24]

The New Bushwick

East Williamsburg on the left

In the 2000s, in the wake of lower crime rates citywide and a shortage of cheap housing in "hip" neighborhoods such as Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Gowanus, a new influx of whites moved into converted-warehouse lofts, brownstones, and other renovated buildings. And while murder rates and Grand larcenies are higher in the 83rd precinct now than they were to start the decade [25], property values are increasing from speculation, and gentrification is beginning to be noticed by the community. Bushwick is about a safe as Williamsburg with the 83rd precinct seeing equal amounts of murders (0) and two more rapes (2), five more robberies (8), and four more felonious assaults (7), but also eleven less burgurlaries (5) and five less grand larcenies (5) the week of 9/04-9/10, 2006 than the 90th precints of Williamsburg. [26] Residents of the former artists colony in Gowanus are already making plans for moving to Bushwick [27]. Nightlife remains a problem, and residents will need to commute to Williamsburg or Manhattan for excitement. [28]

File:Looks better than it really is.jpg

Take the J-Train

East Williamsburg and Ridgewood

East Williamsburg is a neighborhood that borders to the northwest of Bushwick. Prior to the late 1990s, residents rarely called their neighborhood East Williamsburg. Residents east of Graham Avenue or Bushwick Avenue preferred the better-known name of Bushwick. Anything east of Graham Avenue is Bushwick [29]. This association is still strong today, as both Bushwick and East Williamsburg are concurrent casual names for the area. Yet both neighborhoods are served by different community boards and police precincts, and the New York City Department of City Planning recognizes East Williamsburg as a separate neighborhood.

A similar situation of blurred boundaries occurs with the neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens. The term Bushwick-Ridgewood (or Ridgewood-Bushwick) can be seen in the names of community organizations on the Brooklyn side of the border. There are proponents of the Ridgewood neighborhood extending into Brooklyn territory (which overlaps with Bushwick), and there are others who strictly define Ridgewood as being only in Queens.

Neighborhood

Knickerbocker Avenue south of Hernandez park

The adventurous sort can cross Flushing Avenue, stroll down Knickerbocker Avenue (the main shopping drag), and take in the sights in at Maria Hernandez Park, or continue through this shopping district, filled with yellow brick buildings that only seem to have their ground floor occupied. After crossing under the M-train, the housing stock improves dramatically. The neighborhood's character becomes less like Williamsburg and more similar to that of neighboring Bed-Stuy and Brownsville, Brooklyn once crossing Gates Ave.

Fine shopping can be done on Knickerbocker Avenue, whether for clothes, appliances, or food.

Major subway stops include Jefferson Street, DeKalb Avenue, and Myrtle–Wyckoff Avenues on the BMT Canarsie Line (L), Central Avenue on the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line (M), and Koscuisko Street of the BMT Jamaica Line (J). Bus lines serving Bushwick include the B38, B13, B26, B52, B54 and B60. The Myrtle Avenue/Wyckoff Avenue bus and subway hub is currently being renovated into a state-of-the-art transportation center, expected to be completed in 2007.

Notable Bushwick residents/former residents

• Eddie Murphy, Comedian and Actor
• Tod "Tod A." Ashley, musician
• Bushwick Bill, entertainer
• Rick Gonzalez, actor
• Julius La Rosa, singer
• Rosie Perez, actress
• Eric West, actor and singer
• Mae West, actress
• Pastor Bill Wilson, pastor America's largest Sunday School
• Harry Nilsson, singer/songwriter
• Connie Stevens, actress

References

• Goodwin, James, Blackout. North Point Press. New York, NY 2003 ISBN 0-86547-658-6
• Jackson, Kenneth T. and John B. Manbeck, The Neighborhoods of Brooklyn, 2nd ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004, 44-48. ISBN 0-30010-310-7
• Robert Sullivan (2006-03-05). "Psst... Have You Heard About Bushwick?". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• Christine Lagorio (2005-12-07). "Close-Up on Bushwick, Brooklyn". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• {{cite web|author=Jeff Vandam |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/realestate/11livi.html?ex=1155441600&en=4880ae356bd5d439&ei=5070 |title=Bargain-Hunting? Stay on the L-Train a Little Longer | date 2006-6-11 | accessmonthday= August 11 | access year=2006

[30]

External links

• Bushwiki