Historical Chronology, 1642 - 2000
The Early Years
Map of the area, 1767
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1642: Cornelius Dircksen of New York begins a ferry
service to Breuckelen. (Dircksen owned a small inn near Peck’s Station
on the New York East River Shore)
1654: Governor Stuyvesant enacts the first ordinance
controlling the ferry service.
1655: Egbert Van Borsum builds the first ferry-house
tavern (a wooden structure) at foot of the road to the ferry.
1699: New York Corporation contracts for a stone
ferry-house and tavern, to replace wooden structure, completed in 1700.
1704: The ferry road is officially laid out and becomes
known as the "Road to the Ferry" and the "Road to Jamaica."
1748: Stone ferry-house and tavern is burned in protest
by Brookland citizens who resent New York Corporation’s ownership of Brookland
property and shoreline.
1765-67:A map of Brookland Ferry show the East River
Shoreline at about midpoint between the present Front and Water Streets.
Lands along the shoreline are owned by Mr. Rapailie.
1776: On the night of the 26th-27th
August 1776, George Washington leads the American Army’s retreat across
the East River from the site of the present Empire-Fulton Ferry State
Park.
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Olympia 1788
In the 1780s, landowners
Joshua Sands, Comfort Sands and John Jackson began to develop the
new city of "Olympia" in the area between Fulton Ferry
Landing and today's Navy Yard. The following excerpt describes the
virtues of the location:
"Olympia is extremely well calculated
for a city; on a point of land which presents its front up the East
River, surrounded almost with water, the conveniences are almost
manifest. A considerable country in the rear affords the easy attainment
of produce. A pure and salubrious atmosphere, excellent spring water,
and good society, are among a host of other desirable advantages.
As regards health in particular, it is situated on the natural
soil -- no noxious vapors, generated by exhalations from dock-logs,
water and filth sunk a century under its foundations are raised
here."
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1784: The lands of Rapailie, lying between the Fulton
Ferry and Wallabout Bay, are confiscated by the City Corporation and sold
to the Sands Brothers.
1788: Streets in the Fulton Ferry area are laid out
by the Sands Brothers and a later partner named Jackson. They name the
place "Olympia."
1795: A permit is given to William Furman and Theodosius
Hunt to establish a ferry at the foot of present Main Street (at the junction
of Main and the present Water Street) which became known as the "New
Ferry" and "Teamboat Ferry," and later the "Catherine
Street Ferry" (after the landing point in Manhattan). The name of
the road to this ferry, originally "New Ferry Road," was later
changed to Main Street.
1795: The First Landfill: A map of Brooklyn in 1796
shows that landfill operations east of the ferry landing had created Water
Street by this time.
1811: On November 22, Joshua Sands and his wife,
Ann, transfer property to Thomas Carpenter and mark Fowler in the vicinity
of the future Empire Stores. The record shows the existence (at least
on paper) of Plymouth, Main, and Water Streets.
1814: Robert Fulton’s steam-propelled ferry on the
new Fulton Ferry line to New York is introduced. The "Road to the
Ferry" is renamed Fulton Street in honor of the inventor.
1815: Village of Brooklyn is incorporated. The Second
Landfill: The area of the Empire Stores, between Water and Plymouth Streets,
has been landfilled by this time. The landfill could possibly date back
to c. 1811.
1835: Fulton Street and Water Street are widened.
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