THE   FERRY  ROAD

ON

LONG ISLAND


BY

EUGENE L. ARMBRUSTER


THE BROOKLYN FERRY AND THE OLD FERRY ROAD


	At the beginning of the 19th Century Brooklyn Ferry was a cluster of taverns, livery 
stables and stores. People visiting any part of the island were brought to this point by 
the boats from New York City. They found good horses in the stables if they desired to 
make the journey on horseback. Stage coaches leaving for any point on the island started 
from here. Coaches could be hired for private use, and before the start was made a good
meal could be had at a reasonable price. 

	A drygoods store, hardware store, stationery and book store were here; this was the 
shopping center for the majority of Long Island folks. 

	In the first three decades of the new century the settlement, though steadily progressing, 
did not materially change in appearance. The '30s, however, brought numerous stage lines, 
which ran to the county towns and other places, and eventually stages left the ferry at almost 
any hour during the day. At Brooklyn Ferry travellers were spending several hours before 
starting upon a journey, and any place where people assemble in such manner is bound to grow 
so rapidly that comparatively nearby sections cannot keep pace with it. 

	Thus when Brooklyn was made a city in 1834 Brooklyn Ferry was the city, while the remainder 
of the large former town was still a farming district.

	Going up the Ferry Road we will point out a few of the most noteworthy buildings and 
other objects of interest which we pass. 

	Perhaps fifty feet distant from the ferry gate we come upon the Liberty pole, the original 
site being occupied by a pole set up on July 4th, 1822. 

On the right hand side John BEDELL'S stage house and grocery, a two-story framehouse, with the 
livery stables, occupied the site of the old cattle enclosure, where the cattle, brought to 
the ferry from all parts of the island for the New York market, used to await transportation 
across the river. 

	On Elizabeth Street stood the old stone tavern, to which Benjamin SMITH removed after the 
Corporation House was destroyed by fire in 1812. It was a two-story structure, fifty feet wide, 
and known in later days as SMITH and WOOD'S Tavern or the Long Island Stage House. The New York 
newspapers were left here by the ferryman, to be called for by the subscribers. 

	At Aert Street, now Henry Street, stood the two-story MIDDAGH framehouse, with its gable 
end to the street, until 1868. 

	In the days of the Revolution the waters of the East River would have splashed against 
the curbstones on Front Street, at high tide, had they been then in their place. The space 
between the ferry gate and the site of the Corporation House was now fil1ed in and built upon. 
This shows that the original ferry landing was a miniature cove; the road and the land on the 
right side of the road extended out into the river a good deal further than the land on the 
left side. The boat was here protected against the waves while loading and unloading. 

	On the left side, at Water Street, stood Captain KING'S Tavern, subsequently known as BARNUM'S, 
the Steamboat Hotel, 
and finally the FRANKLIN House. 

	Further up was the site of the Corporation House. On Mill Road, later Front Street, stood 
the John RAPALYE house, two stories high and built of Holland brick, until 1807. 

	Between the Corporation House and the RAPALYE House stood the first engine house, erected upon 
a gore-lot at the end of the 18th century. 

	The fire bell, purchased by the village of the Dutch church in 1822, was instalied upon the 
roof of the REMSEN house, on the site of the RAPALYE house. 

	Across Front Street formed an almost straight line. This landing place became known as New Ferry 
and finally as Catherine Ferry and the street as New Ferry Road and later as Main Street, 
while the other branch of the road was now known as Old Ferry Road. The New Ferry was also called 
the Teamboat Ferry and the Old Ferry was called Steamboat Ferry. 
There were no buildings of special interest along this street and we can go further along the 
Ferry Road.


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