History+1600's-1840


 * ​ BUILDINGS **

B-341_348 Grand St, St. Mary's Church B-267_St.Augustine’s Church B-288_263 Henry Street B-288_265 Henry Street B-288_267 Henry Street B-288_281 EAST BROADWAY B-336_7 BIALYSTOKER PLACE B-288_511 Grand Street B-288_513 Grand Street B-288_279 East Broadway

**Summary of Early history of Corlear’s hook**

The early history of Corlear’s Hook from the 1600’s to 1840, is relevant to its present situation and future development for several reasons. Firstly, it shows its development from farm land to urban area, and how the particular grid that can still be appreciated in the shape of the blocks and streets. Secondly, it reveals how this area became a multicultural area characterized by dense tenements. Finally, it shows its early character as an important area for commerce and transportation, from the first ferry-boats in 1638 to the steam ferries in the first decade of 1800.

The history of Corlear’s Hook urban fabric can be traced back to the early 1600’s, when the area was first was granted by Peter Stuyvesant to Jacobus (Arendt) Van Corlear, Counselor in New Neatherland. By 1638 Van Corlear started subdividing his property for tobacco plantation, and progressively leased portions to other owners, which would determine its future physical outline. The area was still mostly farmland when the British took the island in 1664. In fact, the shape of the grid and future urban tissue were not really developed until the late 1700’s when the streets started to extend towards the study area. Two maps show this rapid development towards the end of the 16th century: the 1775 Montessor plan and the 1797 //Taylor-Roberts Plan.// In the first, it is possible to see that only two main streets are reaching the area: //Love Lane// (which will later become East Broadway) and //Bowry Lane// (later Bowery). One can also see the layout of the two farms, Stuyvesant’s and Delancey’s, which gave the area its two characteristic grids. In //Taylor-Roberts// map -created 22 years later- the temporary divisions of the farms have become a permanent urban structure. Important changes and organizational developments in the City affected this area, such as the planning of streets in the Commissioner’s Grid of 1811. This program did not affect the grids in the area, since they were already consolidated and the plan did not call for demolishing already consolidated constructions.

The area was populated by Dutch, English and French families as early as 1668. This social and cultural mixture was diversified through planned immigration encouraged by the Governor during the mid 1660’s. With this a large Irish population came to the area, and would steadily increased throughout the neighborhood’s history. Some relief projects for Irish immigrants were established employment programs for neighborhood renovations such as the filling in of the waterfront in 1814. The immigrant populations steadily grew and housing solutions responded to the requirements of the new inhabitants; by 1833, the first tenement was built in the area. This correlated with the slow movement of the upper classes uptown, and the decrease in property values in this area. A number of tenements continued to be constructed throughout Corlear’s Hook, as immigration increased during the following decades.

With the increase in population in Brooklyn and Manhattan, transportation became a main concern for the working class, who dominated the area in the early 1800’s. The first ferry from Corlear’s Hook to Brooklyn was established in 1797, and was frequently used until it was upgraded to steam technology in 1814. Omnibuses turned up in Manhattan by the 1830’s, as technological developments allowed for better connected between neighboring areas.

The built fabric of Corlear’s Hook reflects the social developments in the area. Events which occurred in the greater City also affected the area’s development, such as the fires set by Washington’s troops to parts of Manhattan during the Revolutionary War. Therefore few buildings from this period survive today. The earliest examples in the study area date from the 1820s, and they are mostly Federal style rowhouses, some few early tenements, and several religious institutions; a number of churches and one synagogue that was previously a Lutheran institution that reflect the social structure of the area.


 * TIMELINE **

Black = All housing related laws, development, etc. Blue = Social History, Programs, etc. Red = Immigration trends Green = National/World/etc. events


 * 1600’s **

**1600’s ** - Begin to sell land to private citizens  “Director-General van Twiller issued ground-briefs or patents for land outside of Manhattan Island, but as this island was the property of the Company, occupation of farms or lots there continued to be by permission or lease and without formal ground-briefs. Leases were usually for six years and often carried with them the right of permanent tenure and conveyance, unless the land were needed by the Company at the time the lease expired……..The earliest extant land records of Manhattan Island begin with the year 1638, after the arrival of the next director-general, Willem Kieft, and the earliest known private conveyances also date from this time.”

“Earlier than Aug. 14, 1636, Van Curler was a member of Van Twiller's council. At that time the council had begun to grant land, subject to the approval of the directors at Amsterdam.”

1636 ** - Van Curler was a member of Van Twiller's council
 * __1630 __


 * Prior 1638 - **Peter Stuyvesant granted the portion of land to Van Corlear for faithful services rendered.


 * 1638 - **The earliest extant land records of Manhattan Island begin with the year 1638.

“Corlear: he was a counselor in New Neatherland. He built the house of good hope in Harvard Connecticut. He owned property in Long Island and Harlem”.
 * 1638 - ** Jacobus Van Curler divided the land for tobacco plantation (76 Acres)


 * 1638 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> The first ferry crossed the East River to Long Island.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1638-45 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Founded a village named “Onoaligone”, later known to Indians and French as “Corlear’s”.

1640 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Corlear leased the plantation to Willem Hendricksen and Gysbert Cornelissen.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">__ 1640 __


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1645 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> First house in the area of Henry Street Settlement

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">FROM 1613 TO 1664 - **//<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Some of the early settlers adopted the bark cabins of the savages, while others dwelt temporarily in roofed cellars. After a saw-mill was built near a stream that emptied into the East River opposite Blackwell's Island, these pioneers constructed one-story log dwellings, the roofs of which were thatched with straw, and the chimneys made of wood. The windows admitted light through oiled paper. As the little town of New Amsterdam increased in size, its habitations assumed a more substantial and comfortable aspect, tiles, shingles, and even brick, having been used for the most elaborate residences. The houses were built in the Low Dutch style, with the gable ends toward the street, the tops indented like stairs, the roofs surmounted by a weathercock, and the walls clamped with iron designed in the form of letters, (usually the initials of the proprietor's name), and in figures indicating the year when the building was erected. Every house was surrounded with a garden in which both flowers and vegetables were cultivated. //
 * __ 1650-80 __


 * 1652 -** Corlear sold the waterfront property to William Beekman in 4,500 guilders. This is the first record of sale marked at the first known use of the name “Corlear’s Hook”

**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1664 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Duke of York captures the Dutch colony. New Amsterdam becomes NY.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1667 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Jacobus Van Curler dies.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1667 **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> - The governor confiscated the property of Dutch subjects that did not take oath of allegiance to the King of England. He confiscated the Estate of the Dutch West India Co.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1686 **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> - Dongan Charter : confirmed all rights and privileges that had been already granted to the city and all property grants to individuals. Public buildings, including the City Hall, two market houses, the bridge into the dock, the wharves, the new burial-place outside the city gate, and the ferry and all revenues there from were given to the mayor, aldermen, and councilmen... All of Manhattan Island was included in the city.
 * 1680s ** <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> - Governor Dongan gave encouragement to the immigration of French Protestants and Irish into New York Province.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 150%;">1700's **

**FROM 1664 TO 1776 –** //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">“The advent of the British brought about many beneficial changes in the social life of the Island. Not only were English habits incorporated into the less ambitious character of the Dutch inhabitants, but the settlement of many Huguenot families of distinction aided materially to produce an atmosphere of culture. Irrepressible social, political, and religious, forces were sweeping over the great nations of Europe and imbuing the immigrants who sought our shores, with a spirit which was to work out undreamed of results”. //

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">//As early as 1668 a social club composed of the best Dutch, English, and French families, was established. Meetings were held twice every week at the different houses, the members coming together about six, and separating at nine o'clock in the evening.//

1703 **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> - The population of the city and county of New York was 4,436.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">__ 1700-40 __

1750 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Trade increases. Piers for packets extend from the end of the island up the East River toward Corlear’s Hook. A shipyard site is rented by Everett Bynanck.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">__ 1750-70 __

**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1754 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> A royal charter for Trinity [church] granted October 31, 1754, and the first students were admitted to the Institution, which was named King's College (now Columbia University).


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1765 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Country houses built by the Delanceys and the Willets.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1772 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> “This Thomas Cheeseman may have been engaged in shipbuilding just prior to the Revolutionary War, for he was the owner of 75 feet shore front in 1772 between the present Pike and Rutgers street….”

- New York remained in British hands until the close of the war, and the civil government, under a mayor and common council, gave way to a military establishment. Many houses that had belonged to rebels or rebel sympathizers were seized by the military government and offered for rent. 1784 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">A cobblestone Street is laid across the Hook to the river. [Business is growing and moving uptown]
 * <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1776 - **<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> The last military invasion. General Washington lays a series of earth barricades on Corlear’s Hook. Ant the British attacked and controlled it for seven years.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">__ 1780-90 __

**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1789 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> New York hosts the first Congress of the United States of America <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">.

**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1793 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Has the first “social club” the east side hills become fashionable. The Belvidere, a club of rich young men, overlooks Corlear’s Hook.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1795 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> George St., now Market St., after the British monarch George III. 1813 Gets present name.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1797 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Ferries begin to operate from Corlear’s Hook to Brooklyn.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 150%;">1800’s **

FROM 1793-1892 / "//At the present time the city extends from the Battery to Yonkers, including an area of forty and one-third square miles within its corporate limits. This territory is divided into twenty-four wards, designated by numbers, and into nearly one hundred and fifty thousand lots. Thirty-nine public parks, exclusive of triangles and small spaces, occupy a combined area of four thousand, eight hundred and forty-one acres.”// <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The creation of a so-called " Greater New York," by the consolidation into one municipality of New York, Brooklyn, Staten Island, a portion of Westchester County, and a large area on Long Island, is a plan which awakens general interest at the present moment. The area of the consolidation would be three hundred and eighteen square miles, —a territory roughly estimated to include a radius of sixteen miles from the City Hall, (with the exception of that portion which lies within the State of New Jersey). The community would then be composed of three millions of people controlled by a central government. // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">

//<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Great educational institutions also contemplate the combination of their forces. New and beautiful edifices that will accommodate the growing demand for scholastic opportunities, soon are to be erected upon favorable sites uptown. Public buildings are to be discarded for more commodious quarters, and as many of these are required to be located in central parts of the city, familiar landmarks again must disappear, and nothing be left to the decay of age. The march of progress brings with it as well, active individuals eager to promote the public good. // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">

Early 1800s**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> -Bad economy, low employment, public policy to fill in swampy places and build a bulkhead along the East River.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 150%;">1800


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1800’s **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> - “With the increase of population the city began to spread out, and the farm land east of the shipyards was cut through by streets, lots laid out, and dwellings soon began to be built and occupied mostly by the industrial class of people. The old shipyards were crowded out by the expansion of the city, and the first move made towards Corlear’s Hook with this industry.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1808 **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> - A circus was established at Corlear's Hook.

1810s -**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Pike St. was originally Charlotte St. It was named in honor of Zebulon Pike, explorer and soldier
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 150%;">1810


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1813 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Robert Fulton’s steamboat launched

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Thousands of Irish immigrants fill the Corlear Hook waterfront, filling in new land. (East River st. was built on existing landfill late 1800s) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">**1814 -** Brooklyn ferry-boats adopted steam


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1818 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> The //Savannah// leaves Corlears Hook.

1820s -**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Several streets are renamed, like East Broadway was originally named Harman Rutgers, a brewer from the locally prominent Rutgers family.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 150%;">1820


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1823 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Henry st. and Grand St. are numbered and gas is piped by the city along these two streets.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1824 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> New shipyards were opened above Corlears Hook,


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1827-28 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">511 Grand St. Is a residential/commercial building, 2.5 plus basement, with brick Flemish bond façade. (513 Grand St., same building and year).


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1829 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> St Augustin’s Parish gets built

1830 -**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> The first omnibuses are introduced ** **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 150%;">1830


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1831 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Monroe St. was originally named Lombard St. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">
 * 1831** - The first railroad was laid between City Hall and 14th St.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1833 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> The first tenement built on Water St. east of Jackson St. It is a four story building with a store on the first floor, and one family housekeeping on each of the upper floors. The owner and architect is James P. Allaire, he is the parent of Robert Fulton.,


 * 1833 -** St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church is founded, 438 Grand Street. Red brick front, twin spires, present façade added in 1871. Is the second oldest Roman Catholic Church in the City.

1842 -**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Merchants burnt out at Cherry Hill have built new warehouses at Corlear Hook. 144 ships (Yankee Clippers) a day line the builkhead along the waterfront.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 150%;">1840

**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> 1840s-50s - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> First great wave of European immigration begins around mid-century, largely northern and western Europeans
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1853 - **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> The first survey of tenements is made by the newly established New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor.

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=96310490&sid=7&Fmt=10&clientId=15403&RQT=309&VName=HNP
 * Docs **


 * [[file:CORLEARS HOOK CHRONOLOGY.doc]]

Articles **


 * [[file:RAZING WILL START AT CORLEARS HOOK; Demolition Crews Begin Today NYtimes 1939.pdf]]

NY TIMES **

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 * URBAN TACTICS; //City of Angles:// **

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 * Links/Website info **



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**Images**


 * Maps**

1775_Plan de New-York et des environs / levé par Montresor, ingénieur.

1838_Hookers pocket plan of NYC

1892_Manhattan Historic and artistic: Six day tour of NYC (pg196-97)