THE   FERRY  ROAD

ON

LONG ISLAND


BY

EUGENE L. ARMBRUSTER


FULTON  AVENUE


	Fulton Avenue above Bridge Street was still a country road in the early 50's. There were 
there still two Dutch farmhouses with gable roofs and bullseyes in the doors on this avenue 
below present junction of Flatbush Avenue. 

	The Breukelen graveyard had been established along the Indian trail and a blockhouse 
was built in the grounds for the protection of the settlers against attacks by the Indians. 

	The church edifice, erected in 1666, tradition says, was reared upon the foundation of this 
block­house. 

	The Indian trail was gradually widened to a road, with the church building in its center, 
between present Lawrence and Bridge Streets. The burying ground was confined to the west of 
the edifice. The latter was built of stone and resembled the meeting house erected in 1699 
at Jamaica. The churchyard comprised about one-half acre of ground and continued to be used 
for burial purposes until 1848. 

	The oldest tombstone having any mark which could be distinguished, a century ago, bore the 
date of 1730. 

	In 1866 the families of the old Breukelen settlers were advised to remove the remains of 
the bodies, as otherwise the latter would be removed to Greenwood Cemetery. Finally 78 bodies 
were taken out and, enclosed in 12 metallic caskets, were placed in the church vault in Greenwood 
Cemetery. 

	The site of the graveyard on Fulton Avenue between Gallatin Place and Hoyt Street was sold 
in 1869 to A. S. WHEELER for $112,000 and is now occupied by the Abraham & Straus Department Store. 

	The church edifice was replaced by a new structure in 1766 on the same site. The bell used 
in the first structure, a gift of the West India Company, received some years before the first 
church was built, was again put in this building, but was in 1822 sold to the village of Brooklyn 
for the sum of £49 4s. raised by subscription by the citizens. It has been asserted that, at the 
time of the Battle of Long Island, Washington held his military council here in this building. 
During the British occupation services of the Church of England were held here for the soldiers. 
The English language was introduced in the regular services in 1792. 

	In 1807 a new edifice was dedicated on a new site, as the old church was standing in the way 
of a coming improvement, the Turnpike. The Brooklyn folk held on the old grim-looking edifice as 
long as possible, but the Turnpike was being laid, and in 1810 the structure was taken down. 

	FURMAN tells us that in removing it, the workmen found the remains of an Hessian officer who 
had been buried there in his uniform during the Revolutionary War. The old church site then 
became known as Brooklyn Square. 

	The site of the third edifice was on ]oralemon's Lane and was purchased in 1805 of John 
JACKMAN for the sum of $850. This edifice was built of gray stone, with small windows and a 
square tower in front, surmounted by a square cupola; its cost was $13,745 and 53 cents. 
It was dedicated on December 23rd, 1807. 
When this structure was taken down the stones were used in constructing the first Trinity or 
later St. Luke's Episcopal Church, on Clinton Avenue. 

	The fourth edifice, on the site of the third one, was dedicated in 1835, it being 
111 x 66 feet: and on the Grecian order. When a new site was purchased for a church building, 
the ground on Joralemon Street was sold in 1886 for the sum of $250,000.  

	The Dutch church erected in 1811 a chapel on Middagh Street, which was later sold, and was 
occupied by P. S. #6. 
In the earlier days the Dominie used to stay at the house of the clerk of the Session between 
Sabbath services. 


	Johannes de BEVOISE, the town clerk of Breukelen, was also clerk of the Session for many years. 
The old one-story house, which stood on the left side of the road near the westerly corner of 
Duffield Street, was his home. His daughter, Margaret, married Dr. John DUFFIELD, an army surgeon, 
and the house became known as the DUFFIELD house. It is believed to have been built by Carel 
de BEVOISE and was occupied by the British during the occupation of Long Island. 
It was destroyed by fire on April 14th, 1857. The DUFFIELD estate extended along the left side 
of the road from about Bridge Street to Duffield Street. 
The DUFFIELD family burial place was a little west of Gold Street on the right side of the old 
road; it was removed when Fulton Avenue was straightened, as it was directly on the line of the 
new thorough­fare. 

	Further up the road stood on the right side a frame house, erected about the close of the 17th 
century by Michael BERGEN. It was rebuilt in the time of the Revolution and was taken down in the 
early 60's. Above the BERGEN house an entrenchment crossed the Ferry Road during the Revolutionary 
War, which extended from Fort Putnam to Freeke's Mill Pond; this part was reconstructed as an oblong 
redoubt during the War of 1812-14 and was then known as Fort Cummings. A tollgate was erected in 
1809 near the point where the Ferry Road forked, a little south of Hanson Place. After Atlantic 
Avenue had been laid out the tollgate was set up at the present corner of Atlantic and Flatbush 
Avenues in 1842. 

	When the Flatbush Plank Road was constructed in 1855 the tollgate was removed to a point south 
of the Valley Grove Tavern. After Prospect Park was established and the road was reconstructed 
outside the park limits, the tollgate was set up. opposite the WILLINK estate. When that part of 
Flatbush, which was included in Prospect Park, was annexed by Brooklyn, the tollgate was removed 
within the Flatbush town limits and was standing in 1880 on Flatbush Avenue and Hawthorne Street. 

	An old farm­house, the COUWENHOVEN house, stood, shaded by large willow trees, on the west side 
of present Fort Greene Place, near Atlantic Avenue, facing south, with gable end to the Ferry Road, 
some 450 feet south of the tollgate; it was taken down in the 60's. 
Two hundred feet southward stood Baker's Tavern, mentioned in Onderdonck's Revolutionary Incidents. 
In the 40's of the 19th century this was known as the Old Bull's Head Tavern and the Long Island Rail 
Road trains used to stop in front of the place; the present Long Island Rail Road Depot is said to 
occupy its site. 

	Charles B. HOLDER erected the Three Mile House in 1854 on Fulton Avenue, near New York Avenue; 
this was taken down in 1913. Having left the tollgate and present Flatbush Avenue, which latter 
continued to Flatbush and Flatlands, the Jamaica Turnpike Road ran through fields, farms and woods 
to Bedford Corners. 
From this point the Cripple­bush Road led to the Cripplebush settlement, where it struck the Newtown 
Road. The Clove Road ran from Bedford Corners in the opposite direction through the "Kloof" or cleft 
in the hills, to the salt meadows, sending out a branch which led to Flatbush Village. 

	At Bedford Corners were a number of old houses, as the; 
TIEBOUT, 
SELOVER and 
VANDERBEECK houses. 
The one on the southwest corner of the Clove Road probably built by Andries ANDRIESE, in 1759, 
came with all the land in the possession of Jacobus LEFFERTS. It was surrounded by locust trees, 
and its roof gave shelter to Major Andre General GRAY, etc.; it was taken down in 1877. 

	The Rem REMSEN house was taken down about 1840. 

	The Johannes REMSEN house is said to have been built in 1716; it was taken down in 1838. 

	The village schoolhouse stood on the right side of the Cripplebush Road, on coming from 
Bedford Corners; it was a one-story frame building and became P. S. #3. 
A brewhouse stood in 1701 on the Cripplebush Road. 

	The village burying ground and the LEFFERTS family burial ground were in its rear on the 
right side of the Cripplebush Road, and the REMSEN burial place on the other side of the same road. 

	The Nicholas BLOOM house was rebuilt in 1787 and was four years later purchased by 
Leffert LEFFERTS; it was taken down in 1909, being then known as 1224 Fulton Street. 

	Then there were the Abraham VAN ENDEN house, taken down in 1819, 

	The Lambert SUYDAM house, which stood until 1856. 

	In 1840 the view as far as East New York was unobstructed by any building. 
William SIMSON'S Four Mile House stood at the junction of the Ferry Road and Hunterfly Road, 
between present Reid and Patchen Avenues. From here the Jamaica and and Brooklyn Plank Road 
was constructed in the early 40's, the tollgate standing originally near the Four Mile House. 

	In the 1880's there were tollgate on either side of the Plank Road on the left just below 
Eldert Avenue, and on the right side at Hemlock Street; 
The Plank Road within the old Brooklyn town limits having been ceded to the city in 1852 to be 
used as a public street; 
The Brooklyn and Jamaica Turnpike Road, likewise having been ceded three years prior. 

	HOWARD'S Halfway House, or the Rising Sun Tavern, stood at the junction of the Ferry Road 
and Old Bushwick Road, having been built by William HOWARD in 1715. The British forced the 
tavern-keeper and his little son to lead them over the Rockaway Path in the early morning 
hours of August 27th, 1776. Here also General WOODHULL received nourishment and had his wounds 
dressed on his way to New Utrecht. 

	The HOWARD estate was sold in 1867. A big white oak tree stood in the middle of the road, 
a little east of the tavern, at the time of the Revolution. It was in later time struck by 
lightning. 

	The Isaac SCHENCK farmhouse, standing on the right side of the road between Linwood and 
Essex Streets, is now included in High­land Park.


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