Many people know that Brooklyn is named after the Dutch town Breukelen, and that it was originally settled by the Dutch. But there are numerous other reminders of the Dutch presence to be found in Brooklyn. For example, did you know that Flatlands used to be called New Amersfoort, and that it houses the Dutch Wijckoff house, New York City’s oldest surviving structure? Or that Coney Island is thought to be named after the Dutch word for rabbit, ‘konijn’?
The newly launched website Brooklyn Revealed is a fascinating tour of Brooklyn’s historic neighborhoods and allows you to discover the Dutch history of the area. The site, launched by the New-York Historical Society, offers a glimpse of all the important people, places, and events in the borough’s history and provides explanations of the origins of more than 100 Brooklyn street names, many of which can be traced back to the Dutch.
Brooklyn was originally comprised of six independent towns largely settled by Dutch and English colonists in the mid-seventeenth century: Bushwick, Flatbush, Flatlands, Gravesend, New Utrecht, and Brooklyn. The British seized New Netherlands in 1664, and in 1683 united the six towns as Kings County, one of the original counties of the Colony (and later State) of New York. But Brooklyn Revealed shows that the Dutch chapter in New York’s history helped define the Brooklyn we know today, and that the Dutch heritage is still visible in our everyday life.
Brooklyn revealed is designed to be an interactive website, offering visitors the chance to share their ideas on the history of the borough. So if you have any additional information on Dutch names and histories of streets and places in Brooklyn, you can submit them to the site. With this website, the New-York Historical Society offers a great way of spreading the knowledge on the interesting Dutch heritage in New York City.
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