Williamsburg Neighborhood

Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the northern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint, Bed-Stuy, and Bushwick.

Williamsburg is home to many ethnic groups, a thriving art community, and, increasingly, commuters to Manhattan.

History

Independent Williamsburgh

In 1638, the Dutch West India Company first purchased the area's land from the local Native Americans. In 1661, the company chartered the Town of Boswijck, including land that would later become Williamsburg. After the English takeover of New Netherland in 1664, the town's name was anglified to Bushwick. During colonial times, villagers called the area " Bushwick Shore." This name lasted 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(ed)." 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. In 1802, real estate speculator Richard M. Woodhull acquired 13 acres (53,000 m²) near what would become Metropolitan Avenue, then North 2nd Street. He had Colonel Jonathan Williams, a U.S. Engineer, survey the property, and named it Williamsburgh (with an h at the end) in his honor. Originally a 13-acre development within Bushwick Shore, Williamsburgh rapidily expanded during the first half of the nineteenth century and eventually seceded from Bushwick and formed its own independent city.

Williamsburgh was incorporated as the Village of Williamsburgh within the Town of Bushwick in 1827. In two years it had a fire company, a post office and a population of over 1,000. The deep drafts along the East River encouraged industrialists, many from Germany, to build shipyards around Williamsburgh. Raw material was shipped in, and finished products were sent out of many factories straight to the docks. Several sugar barons built processing refineries. Now all are gone except the now-defunct Domino Sugar (formerly Havemeyer & Elder). Other important industries including shipbuilding and brewing.

Reflecting its increasing urbanization, Williamsburgh separated from Bushwick as the Town of Williamsburgh in 1840. It became the City of Williamsburgh in 1852, which was organized into three wards. The old First Ward roughly coincides with the South Side and the Second Ward with the North Side, with the modern boundary at Grand Avenue. The Third Ward was to the east of these, beginning to approach modern Eastern Williamsburg.

In Brooklyn's Eastern District

In 1855, the City of Williamsburgh, along with the adjoining Town of Bushwick, were annexed into the City of Brooklyn as the so-called Eastern District. The First Ward of Williamsburgh became Brooklyn's 13th Ward, the Second Ward Brooklyn's 14th Ward, and the Third Ward Brooklyn's 15th and 16th Wards.

In modern times the conception of Williamsburg (which lost its h with the Brooklyn merger) has expanded to cover areas not historically a part of the City of Williamsburgh. Much of what has later come to be understood as the heart of Williamsburg, the area south of Division Avenue in the west and Broadway in the east, was actually originally the Wallabout section of the City of Brooklyn. Also, much of what is today called East Williamsburg was originally organized as Brooklyn's 18th Ward from the Bushwick annexation, exclusive of the 27th and 28th Wards encompassing what is today called Bushwick, which were split off in 1892.

During its period as part of Brooklyn's Eastern District, the area achieved remarkable industrial, cultural, and economic growth, and local businesses thrived. Wealthy New Yorkers such as Cornelius Vanderbilt and railroad magnate Jim Fisk built shore-side mansions. Charles Pratt and his family founded the Pratt Institute, the great school of art & architecture, and the Astral Oil Works, which later became part of Standard Oil. Corning Glass Works was founded here before moving upstate to Corning, New York. Chemist Charles Pfizer founded Pfizer Pharmaceutical in Williamsburgh, and the company still maintains an industrial plant in the neighborhood, although its headquarters was moved to Manhattan in the 1960s. In 2008, it plans to close the plant, on a Flushing Avenue site it has used since 1849. Brooklyn's Broadway street, ending in the ferry to Manhattan, became the area's lifeline. At one point in the 19th century Williamsburg possessed 10% of the wealth of the United States and was the engine of American growth.

The Kings County Savings Institution was chartered on April 10, 1860. It conducted business in a building called Washington Hall until it purchased the lot on the corner of Bedford Avenue and Broadway and erected its permanent home, the Kings County Savings Bank building. This was the bank used by the wealthiest men in America. It remains to this day probably the most historically important landmark in Williamsburg, representing a time of conspicuous wealth and the industrial and financial strength of the American phenomenon.

The intersection of Broadway, Flushing Avenue, and Graham Avenue was a cross-roads for many "inter-urbans", prior to World War I. The inter-urbans were light rail trollies, and ran from Long Island to Williamsburg. Bannerman's Department Store, the Macy's of its day, was on the site now occupied by Woodhull Hospital. the population was heavily German but many Jews from the Lower East side of Manhattan came to the area when the Williamsburgh Bridge was completed. Katz Drug Store, founded in 1898, remains on Graham Avenue and is still in business. Williamsburgh was a financial hub rivaling Wall Street for a time. The area around Peter Lugar's Steak House was a major banking hub until the City of Brooklyn united with New York City.

Crossing the Williamsburg Bridge

In 1898 Brooklyn itself became one of five boroughs within the City of Greater New York, and its Williamsburg neighborhood was opened to closer connections with the rest of the new city.

Just five years later, the opening of the Williamsburg Bridge in 1903 marked the real turning point in the area’s history. The community was then opened up to thousands of upwardly mobile immigrants and second-generation Americans fleeing the overcrowded slum tenements of Manhattan's Lower East Side. Williamsburg itself soon became the most densely populated neighborhood in the United States. The novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn addresses a young girl growing up in the tenements of Williamsburg during this era.

After World War II, the economy sagged. Refugees from war-torn Europe began to stream into Brooklyn, including the Hasidim whose populations had been devastated in the Holocaust. The area south of Division Avenue is home to a large population of adherents to the Satmar Hasidic sect. Hispanics from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic also began to settle in Williamsburg. But with the decline of industry and the increase of population and poverty, crime and illegal drugs, Williamsburg became a cauldron of pent-up energies. Those who were able to move out did, and the area became known for its crime and other social ills.

Feast of St. Paulinus and Our Lady of Mount Carmel

A significant component of the Italian community on the North Side were immigrants from the city of Nola near Naples. Residents of Nola every summer celebrate the "Festa del Giglio" (feast of lillies) in honor of St. Paulinus of Nola, who was bishop of Nola in the Fifth Century. The immigrants brought the traditions of the feast with them. For two weeks every summer, the streets surrounding Our Lady of Mount Carmel church, located on Havemeyer and North 8th Streets, is dedicated to a celebration of Italian culture. The highlights of the feast are the "Giglio Sundays" when a 100 foot tall statute, complete with band and a singer, is carried around the streets in honor of Paulinus and Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Despite the fact that many of the descendants of the early Italian immigrants have moved away, many return each summer for the feast.

The Giglio was the subject of a documentary that aired on PBS in 2002 called "Heaven Touches Brooklyn in July", narrated by actors John Turturro and Michael Badalucco.

Sub-Neighborhoods within Williamsburg

"South Williamsburg" refers to the area which today is occupied mainly by the Yiddish-speaking Satmar Hasidim, which comprised the whole of Williamsburg for some of the early 20th century. North of traditional Williamsburg is an area known as the "South Side," occupied by Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. To the north of that is an area known as the "North Side," traditionally Polish and Italian, but now host to an increasing numbers of hipsters. East Williamsburg is home to many industrial spaces and forms the largely Italian American, African American, and Hispanic area between Williamsburg and Bushwick. Traditional Williamsburg, South Side, North Side, Greenpoint and East Williamsburg all form Brooklyn Community Board 1. The "hipster" center of Williamsburg radiates from the strip of Bedford Avenue near the Bedford Avenue Station on the L train, the first stop from Manhattan.

Transportation

Williamsburg is served by 3 subway lines, the L BMT Canarsie Line on the north, the J/M/Z (BMT Jamaica Line) on the south, and the G (IND Crosstown Line) on the east. The Williamsburg Bridge crosses the East River to the Lower East Side. Williamsburg is also served by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.