Brooklyn Historical Soc. - Dec 3: First American Musical

Happy 200th Birthday, Mr. Wheatley!
Sat, Dec 3, 7 pm – 8:30 pm
$35/$30 for BHS & G-W Members
Reserve your spot

Love musicals? Then you won’t want to miss this musical tribute to the guy who got it all started. William Wheatley (1816 – 1876), Green-Wood permanent resident and stage star, produced The Black Crook, the first American musical. The show was five hours long and ran for a record-breaking 474 performances at the famed Niblo’s Garden. Enjoy songs written, performed, and produced by Wheatley and other Green-Wood residents at this 200th birthday bash!

Old/New Brooklyn Neighborhoods

Thursday, July 7, 6:30 pm

$5/Free for BHS Members

From Bay Ridge to Bushwick, today neighborhoods on the cusp
of gentrification display obvious signs of transformation and tension,
but what about areas that were the first to make up the "new"
Brooklyn, like Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, and Prospect Heights?
What is their narrative and what challenges do they face today?
Join Jarrett Murphy, Executive Publisher of City Limits, as he
moderates a discussion with thought leaders including historian
Suleiman Osman, author of The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn:
Gentrification and the Search for Authenticity in Postwar New York,
New York Times columnist Ginia Bellafante, and Sandy Hornick,
longtime Park Slope homeowner and formerly of the NYC Department
of City Planning.  

Offered in partnership with "Celebrating the City: Jane Jacobs at 100." 

BHS Discussion: Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn

Thursday, July 7, 6:30 pm

$5/Free for BHS Members

From Bay Ridge to Bushwick, today neighborhoods on the cusp of

gentrification display obvious signs of transformation and tension,

but what about areas that were the first to make up the 

"new" Brooklyn, like Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, and Prospect

Heights? What is their narrative and what challenges do they

face today? Join Jarrett Murphy, Executive Publisher of City Limits,

as he moderates a discussion with thought leaders including

historian Suleiman Osman, author of The Invention of Brownstone

Brooklyn: Gentrification and the Search for Authenticity in Postwar

New York, and New York Times columnist Ginia Bellafante. 

BROOKLYN IN THE WARS

Tales from the Vault: War Correspondence
Thu, Nov 12, 6:30 pm
Free


Join us in our archives as we explore the life and times of American veterans in Brooklyn. BHS archivist John Zarrillo and BHS Director of Public History Julie Golia examine Brooklyn’s role in America’s wars, from the Revolutionary War to the present, and share stories from veterans and their families in their own words using correspondence and objects found in our collections.


Brooklyn Historical Society

128 Pierrepont Street

Brooklyn, NY 11201

Brooklyn HS Program - Museum of Slavery program

Thursday, October 15, 6 pm

$10/$5 for BHS Members

John Cummings spent 15 years and $8 million of his own fortune to open the first museum of slavery on the site of a former Louisiana plantation. The Whotney Plantation has been chronicled by The New York Times Magazine and The Atlantic, and now John Cummings and Dr. Ibrahima Seck, Director of Research at the Whitney Plantation, sit down with Jelani Cobb, who regularly writes about race and history forThe New Yorker and The New York Times, to share his story and discuss the vital importance of a slavery museum for our country's historical consciousness. 

When Brooklyn Lost Its Swagger

WHEN BROOKLYN LOST ITS SWAGGER: THE CONSOLIDATION OF 1898  Thursday, September 24 at 9:00p  Brooklyn was a large, proud, and independent city until 1898, when it was consolidated into the newly conceived five-borough NYC that exists today. Ever since, generations of bitter Brooklynites have grumbled about living in Manhattan’s shadow, but Brooklyn’s downgrade from city to borough was welcomed by many 19th century Brooklynites who saw is as a way to save their hometown from bankruptcy and irrelevance. Manhattan Borough Historian Michael Miscione will reveal all the dirty details behind what some Brooklynites still call “the mistake of ’98." (Note: This presentation is part of a Nerd Nite double feature at the BHS. The second presentation, by Mike Liss, will be recount the heyday of New York City tabloid journalism.) The Brooklyn Historical Society 128 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn  $10 admission More info and tickets: http://brooklynhistory.org/visitor/calendar.html

WEEKLY SUNDAY BROOKLYN MUSEUM TOUR

This is Brooklyn!
Sun, Jun 21, 1pm
FREE with Museum Admission

Learn the history of Brooklyn through the lens of our building in this hour-long tour. Longtime Brooklyn residents and first-time visitors alike will enjoy fascinating details about this special building and extraordinary borough.

Offered every Sunday at 1pm!

NEW YORK CITY: 1804-1808

1804

July

Aaron Burr departs from Manhattan, travels to Albany. He will soon move on to Amboy, New Jersey, and then further south.

Jul 12

Alexander Hamilton, mortally wounded yesterday in his duel with Aaron Burr in Weehawken, New Jersey, is brought to Manhattan where he dies at the home of his banker friend Robert Bayard near today's Greenwich Village.

Oct 18

Future lawyer Eugene Kateltas is born to a wealthy and respected family in Manhattan.

New York City

Wealthy merchant Jonas Wood builds a house at 314 Washington Street.    **    John Jacob Astor purchases a plot of land at 133 LaGrange Terrace (Colonade Row).    **    Young ship's mate Dennison Wood, working on a vessel bringing sugar to the city, marries 17-year-old Lydia McKildo.    **    The approximate date Connecticut shoemaker Benjamin de Forest comes to Manhattan and opens a shop - Benjamin de Forest and Company - in the harbor area at 31 Peck Slip.

1805

New York City
Construction begins on the Commandant's House at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on the East River, in the Vinegar Hill neighborhood. It will be completed next year.

1806

New York City

Population: 60,000.

1807

Apr 3

A New York City act is issued under the title Remarks of the Commissioners for Laying Out Street and Roads in the City of New York.

New York City

The Orphan Asylum Society of New-York is founded by Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton (wife of Alexander), the city's first private orphanage, at West End Avenue and 73rd and 74th streets.    

1808

Apr 25

Brooklyn municipal official and U.S. Representative James Samuel Thomas (S.T.) Stranahan is born in Peterboro, New York, to Samuel Stranahan and his wife Lynda Josselyn Stranahan.    

May 28

Minstrel show producer Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice is born in Manhattan's Lower East Side.

Aug 8

Merchant and real estate operator Henry Evelyn "E." Pierrepont is born in Brooklyn to Hezekiah B. Pierrepont and his wife Anna M. Constable Pierrepont.

New York City

Grace Church is organized at Broadway and Rector Street.    **    Visiting free Ethiopian seamen and African-American parishioners, protesting racially restricted seating, leave the First Baptist Church at Broadway and West 79th Street. Next year they will found the Abyssinian Baptist Church, the third oldest Baptist Church in America.

©  2015 David Minor Eagles Byte

What’s Nu: Brooklyn’s Jewish Delis - BHS Program

If you're looking for a quintessential Brooklyn experience, look no further than the classic Jewish delicatessen. While they're no longer on virtually every Brooklyn street corner, some local icons continue to thrive. Deli historian Ted Merwin discusses the glories, challenges, and traditions of serving up corned beef with the owners of three delis: a populist (Alan Rosen of Junior’s), a traditionalist (Lloyd Lederman of Jay and Lloyd’s Kosher Deli) and a newcomer (Noah Bernamoff of Mile End).

What’s Nu: The State of Brooklyn’s Jewish Delis

Thursday, December 11, 6:30pm

$10/$5 for BHS Members

BUSHWICK AFLAME

Jonathan Mahler, The New York Times media

reporter and author of the critically

acclaimed Ladies and Gentlemen,

the Bronx is Burning, moderates this panel

exploring Bushwick’s 1970s nadir.

Photographer Meryl Meisler,

a tenant lawyer, an FDNY fire marshal, a

Community Board manager, and a displaced

resident will discuss their experiences on the

frontlines of urban neglect.

Part of a four-part thematic series on

Brooklyn and fire, presented with

Green-Wood Cemetery. 

Brooklyn’s On Fire: 

Bushwick is Burning

Monday, November 17, 6:30pm

$5 / Free for BHS Members

BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY PROGRAMS

Handmade History!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

Sat, Apr 12, 3-4pm

FREE

It's baseball season! Celebrate with the family with a visit to BHS to learn

about our extensive Dodgers paraphernalia collection and then silk screen

your own jerseys.

               IMPORTANT NOTE: Bring your own black or white t-shirts to

                                                  silk screen and some paper bags.

This is Brooklyn

Sun Apr 18, 1pm

FREE with museum admission

Learn the history of Brooklyn through the lens of our building in tho
 hour-long tour.
Longtime Brooklyn residents and first-time visitors alike will enjoy
fascinating details about this special building and extraordinary borough.

Wallabout Walking Tour

Sat, Apr 26, 11am

$25/$15 for BHS Members

The Wallabout Historic District, near the Brooklyn Navy Yard,

contains one of the largest concentrations of intact pre-Civil War

wood-frame rowhouses in the entire city! Chelcey Berryhill and
Elizabeth Finkelstein shine a light on the fascinating early roots.

Bannerman Castle: The Medieval Ruins of Hudson Valley

Sat, Apr 12, 1pm

Talk: free

Tour: $20/$15 for GW and BHS Members

Programming partner Green-Wood Cemetery presents the unique

opportunity to discover the history behind this mysterious

castle-like structure often viewed by Metro North riders on their 

ride up the Hudson River. Site tour guides detail the history of 

this remarkable site, then board the trolley for a short 

Green-Wood tour, including a stop at the Bannerman family plot.

Thinking about becoming a BHS Member?

Membership packages begin at $50, all with great perks like

discounted tickets to public programs and 10% off every day

at our Museum Store.

Our mailing address is:

Brooklyn Historical Society

128 Pierrepont Street

Brooklyn, NY 11201

USA

ADMISSION

Suggested contribution: 

$10 adults; $6 teachers and seniors; free to members, students

with valid school IDs, and children 12 years and under. 

Phone: 718-222-4111

Copyright © 2014 Brooklyn Historical Society, All rights reserved.

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS

Click on Photo to Enlarge

© 2010 David Minor / Eagles Byte

NEW YORK CITY TIMELINE - 1650-1654

1650

City

Immigrant Jan Aertsen Vanderbilt arrives from der Bilt, Holland. ** The

Jan Jansson map of New Amsterdamn, originally dated at 1655, will be

redated to this year in the late 1990s, by Jan van Bracht and Günter Schilder.

Queens

Burger Jorissen builds a gristmill at he future site of Queens Plaza.

1651

Peter Stuyvesant receives the deed for a bouwerie (farm) previously belonging

to Wouter Von Twiller. ** The approximate date Jan Jansson’s manuscript

map of Belgii Novi (New Netherlands) is created. It has since disappeared.

Mar 21

The directors of the Dutch West India Company complain of the extravagant

land grants made to Wouter van Twiller and direct Stuyvesant not to make

any more grants unless the grantee acknowledged the authority of the company

and gave proof of their own ability to properly cultivate the granted lands.

1652

Jun 30

England declares war against the Netherlands, the First Anglo-Dutch War.

City

Governor Peter Stuyvesant charters Flatbush, on Long Island, and issues a

patent for the Long Island village of Newtown (later Elmhurst), previously

known as Middleburgh. ** Englishman William Hallet, buys 1,500 acres

on Long Island along the East River from Stuyvesant. The Indians are

appeased with a blanket, beads, 7 coats, and 4 kettles. The community

becomes Hallets Cove (later Astoria). ** In an attempt to stimulate

colonization the West India Company reduces the fare from eight stuivers

a day to seven. ** The Dutch erect a timber and earthwork wall across

Manhattan at the settlement's northern boundary, for military protection.

It will provide the name of the future Wall Street.

Brooklyn

The Dutch West India Company’s Cornelius Van Werckhoven, a magistrate

of Utrecht in the Netherlands, purchases land from the Nayack Indians,

agreeing to compensate the tribe with clothing and tools., establishes the town

of New Utrecht, with permission by Stuyvesant. ** Stuyvesant grants a town

patent to Midwout (the future Flatbush). ** The approximate date Pieter

Stuyvesant estate superintenent Pieter Claesen Wykoff builds a house in the future

Flatbush section. It will one day become the oldest surviving house in the state.

Netherlands

The Lords Directors of the Dutch West Indies Company in Amsterdam learn that

New Amsterdam has an abundance of mulberry trees, begin planning for a silk industry.

1653

Peter Stuyvesant incorporates the city of Nieuw Amsterdam (New Amsterdam).

January

Manhattan resident Joost Goderis, son of a Dutch painter, is accosted while returning from

a fishing trip to Oyster (later Ellis) Island by Isaack Bedloo (Bedloe), Guliam (Gukyam) d’Wys,

Gyshert van der Donck, Jan Vinje, Pieter Werckhoen Harmanus Hartoogh, Cornelius Melyn

and Jacob Buys and taunted with being cuckolded by Allard Antony, supposedly loud enough

to be hard back on the Battery. Subsequently Goderis shows up at Bedloo’s house and slaps him.

Bedloo cuts Goderis on the neck.

Feb 10

The new government meets in Fort Amsterdam. Joost Goderis appears and accuses Bedloo

of last month’s taunting and wounding. A number of witnesses – including Antony - brought

in, refuse to testify against Bedloe.

March

Those who Goderis has accused are ordered to remain under house arrest and report back on

March 8th. The case will drag out for weeks, finally dropped by Goderis for insufficient evidence.

July

Word arrives in the colonies that England and Holland have signed a peace treaty.

Dec 10

Representatives from four Dutch and four English towns meet in New Amsterdam, to protest

against New Netherland's arbitrary government.

Dec 14

Stuyvesant convenes the colony’s first representative assembly, defies the opinions of “a few

ignorant subjects”.

City

The city acquires a city council and a town government, in protest to Stuyvesant's rule. **

The Dutch West Indies Company's tavern at Pearl Street and Coentes Alley is ceded to

the city for a city hall. The colony builds a wall across the island to the north, as a protection

against English colonies and Indians, from that direction. ** Merchant Jacob Krip is

appointed first city clerk of New Amsterdam. ** Immigrant builder Frederick

Philipse arrives. ** Politician and poet Nicasius de Sille arrives from Holland after his ship

battles with English vessels three times. ** Carpenter Claes Hendricksen exchanges his

homestead just to the north of the new wall, with Polish-born tavern keeper Daniel Litsche.

It will later be condemned by authorities as being too near the fortifications.

Brooklyn

This year or next the New Utrecht Reformed Dutch Church Cemetery is begun. A church will

not be built on the site until 1700.

1654

May 18

The directors of the East India Company write to governor Pieter Stuyvesant, informing him of a

New Amsterdam city seal to be forwarded.

Jun 8

New Amsterdam settler Teunis Tomasen sues Michael Paulisen for payment on a chimney Tomasen

had built for Paulisen. Tomasen wins his suit.

Jun 20

New England recruits setting out to attack New Amsterdam learn that the English and the Dutch have

made peace.

Jul 4

Manhattan's Dominies Hook, on the North (Hudson) River between Duane and Canal streets, is acquired

by ground brief from Peter Stuyvesant.

Jul 17

The approximate date (possibly the 18th) the Dutch ship Peartree sails from Holland with the

New Amsterdam city seal.

Aug 22

Jacob Barsimon becomes one of the first Jews to settle in New Amsterdam, having arrived on the

Peartree. Solomon Pietersen may have come in the same vessel.

Sep 7

23 Sephardic Jews, including Moses Ambrosius (Lumbroso), Judicq de Mereda, Abraham Israel,

David Israel and Rycke Nounes, refugees from Brazil, arrive in New Amsterdam aboard the French

armed vessel St. Charles (the Jewish Mayflower). The ship’s captain claims he’s owed 1600 guilders

for the trip.

Oct 5

Manhattan tavern keeper Wolfert Webber is called before the Magistrates’ Court on charges his

dogs attacked several pigs – owned by Judith Verleth and a Mrs Stillen - that wandered on his

lands. Webber claims the hogs were damaging his seeds, but did not harm the pigs. He also

claims he’s been threatened with a beating by Mrs. Verleth. The court tells him to mend his

ways and make a complaint of his own if he’s threatened again.

Nov 14

English physicist Thomas Pell purchases over 9,000 acres in the Bronx from the local

Siwanoy Indians.

Dec 8

Stuyvesant presents the city seal and accompanying signet to burgomeister Martin Crigier.

Bronx

The Dutch settle Oostdorp (East Village), the future Parkchester neighborhood.

Brooklyn

A wooden structure, the town’s first Dutch Reformed Church, is built in Flatbush,

under the direction of Peter Stuyvesant.

© 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte