Brownsville, originally part of New Lots, began as a marshy area settled by the Dutch and developed by William Suydam in the 1860s. After foreclosure, Charles S. Brown subdivided the land and built houses, marketing the area to the working class. Transportation improvements, particularly the Fulton Street subway and Williamsburg Bridge, facilitated growth, especially among Russian-Jewish immigrants by 1910. The area also encompasses Ocean Hill, which has a history tied to Brownsville but is now recognized as part of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights.
The area, historically a marshy land for building materials and waste disposal, transformed as Brown, a land speculator, turned it into Brown's Village with 250 houses.
The 1903 completion of the Williamsburg Bridge and extensions of the IRT subway from Manhattan significantly contributed to Brownsville's growth, attracting garment workers from the Lower East Side.
Collection
[
|
...
]