Brooklyn Standard Union ­ Anniversary ­ 
1863-1928

Weird and Confusing Was the Street System of Old Brooklyn City

Many Conflicts, Separate Sets of Numbers, Meant Tribulations to Visitors and
to Mail Carriers, Too ­ Some, Not All Since Corrected.

Few Brooklynites, with the possible exception of taxi drivers, know the
streets of the borough to-day.  Most of them are fairly well acquainted with
the highways for a given number of blocks around their homes and perhaps a
few important intersections at various parts of town.
Imagine then the dilemma of the poor Postmaster and the visitor to Brooklyn
in 1863!

Consolidation of the three corporate towns of Bushwick, Williamsburgh and
Brooklyn had united three erstwhile separate and distinct communities, each
of which named its streets with a view of immortalizing some person or
character of their section.  In some instance, to honor a great national
character or some principle like Union, or northern  states, a street was
named after one or the other.

Multiplicity of Washingtons.
So a person, coming from New York and asking how to get to see an old
friend, John Smith on Washington street, had almost as much fun as the poor
letter carrier, for there were no less than nine thoroughfares named after
the Father of Our Country.  There was a Washington Avenue, a Washington
Park, three Washington Places and four Washington Streets.
Not to be outdone by the opposition, the Democrats had fixed matters so that
there were four Jefferson Streets.

Looking further on the map we discover three Ann Streets, three William
Streets, three Adams Streets, three Elizabeth, three Cottage Rows, three
Debevoise, and to make matters more interesting nearly every important
street had a duplicate.

Among the streets that came in pairs were: Boerum, Centre, Clay, Division,
Garden, Furman, Harrison, Jackson, John, Johnson, Marshall, Monroe,
Prospect, Powers, Ewen, Smith, Wyckoff, Sanford and Bridge.

Some Other Conflicts.
The newly arrived immigrant seeking relatives had his choice upon street,
where the extra pair of "hill horses" were unhitched from the horse car,
about where Henry Street comes into Fulton.  These extra horses were used to
help the regular team up the grade and over the crest of the grade.
Then Fulton Street ambled on up, turned half-left past City Hall Park and
thence on to Pearl Street by way of two half left turns as it does to-day.

Double Set of Numbers.
Then, just as the street was stretching itself out into a straightaway
toward city line, Fulton Street ended and from Pearl Street on out to the
"line" it was Fulton Avenue.
A new set of street numbers began for Fulton Avenue at No. 1, where the
four-hundred of Fulton Street stopped.
We read of many allusions to confusion in this 1863 Babel of streets, but in
1863 nothing had been done about it.
Papers protested, editors decried it, and citizens demanded changes, but it
remained for a later generation to in some manner re-arrange the mess.

Problem for the Post Office.
Easter District had its First, Second and Thirds up to Twelfth Street.  So
did South Brooklyn.  Picture the post office of that day, at Court and
Monatague Streets, with harassed clerks trying to sort the mail.
Then there were the North and South numbered streets which exist to this
day, along with the numbered "places."

Later years brought changes so that the Eastern District numbered streets
won other names.  First Street (E.D.) became Kent Avenue of to-day; Second
Street became Wythe Avenue; Third Street became Berry Street; Fourth Street
became Bedford Avenue; Fifth or Van Cott became Driggs Avenue; Sixth is now
Roebling; Seventh is Havemeyer; Eighth is Marcy Avenue; Ninth Street became
Rodney; Tenth Street is Keap Street to-day; Eleventh is Hooper, and Twelfth
is Hewes Street.
That Hewes and Ewen wouldn't conflict, Ewen was changed to Manhattan Avenue.

DeKalb Avenue and Chestnut Street.
DeKalb Avenue, in the old days, ran up as far as Jamaica plank road after
which it became Chestnut Street.  Jamaica plank road is today a continuation
of Myrtle Avenue (it began at Broadway) and Chestnut street has moved out to
East New York while its ancestor of 1863 is now a continuation of DeKalb
Avenue from Bushwick Avenue on out.
The famous Old Clove road which started near Fulton and Bedford and wandered
"cross lots" through the neighborhood to finally lose itself near Montgomery
Street, has been lost completely by the building up and cutting through of
the cross streets.

"Yates and Gates."
The play on words that permitted villagers of that day to say, "at the
corner of Yates and Gates" wrought havoc with the folk of Scandinavian
ancestry.  Yates Avenue is now Sumner.
Reed Avenue has undergone a slight piece of typographical correction and is
now Reid.  Rockaway Avenue in 1863 labored under the doubtfully
pronounceable name of Paca Street.  Kingston Avenue was once upon a time one
of the two Hudson Avenues and Bedford Avenue south of Pacific Street once
answered the name of Perry Street.
Waverly Avenue, it is to-day, but it was just one of a pair of Hamilton
Streets in 1863.

And "old timers" will probably remember when North and South Elliott Place
bore the rather theatrical title of Hampdon Street.
Somebody counted one too many so the street between Sixteenth and
Seventeenth in South Brooklyn became Middle Street in those days.  It is now
Prospect Avenue.
And out in the vicinity of Bushwick and Broadway, somebody had visions of
starting another "downtown New York" for they had a Wall Street!  And to
keep it company with neighboring streets bore the names of Ann Street,
Locust and Park.
Old Myrtle Avenue (east of Broadway) is now Willoughby Avenue, old Suydam
Street is now Hart, old Adams is now Melrose Street, old Ann Street is now
Belvidere and believe it or not ­ old Wall Street is now Arion Place!

Some More Re-naming.
In what is now Ridgewood, Decatur Street was Van Voorhies, Hancock was
Duryea, Jefferson Avenue was John Street, Putnam Avenue answered to the name
of Jacob, Madison was Ivy and Gates was Magnolia.

And if anybody can imagine good old Halsey Street traveling under the alias
of Margaretta, let them try to picture it on the front of a trolley car,
that's what is was called in the sixties.

No wonder the editors ranted and the citizens decried the "woeful confusion
of street names."

Transcriber: Mimi Stevens
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