Vinegar Hill Brooklyn

Pre-colonial

Dutch settlers began arriving in 1637 along the waterfront area up to Fulton Street. When the Dutch settlers arrived in the early seventeenth century, the Canarsee, already weakened by disease, hunger, and warfare, began selling their land to the settlers and started a long westward migration that eventually took them as far as the Illinois territory.

The land was sold by the Canarsee to Joris Jansen Rapalje, who acquired it for farming purposes. Around 1646, it was renamed Breuckelen. A few years earlier, in 1642, the first ferry began operating from the northern point of Fulton Street, connecting Breuckelen with Manhattan across the East River.

18th century

In 1784, Forfeiture Commissioners acquired the land from Joris Jansen Rapalje and sold the Gold Street area to Comfort and Joshua Sands. The Sandses intended to develop the area as a summer destination for New Yorkers.In 1787, they constructed numerous blocks for a community known as “Olympia”.

19th century

In the early nineteenth century, Jackson sold 40 acres (16 ha) to the United States government for the Brooklyn Navy Yard and subsequently built additional housing for Navy Yard personnel. Jackson named the area in honor of the Battle of Vinegar Hill, the last battle of an Irish-English conflict, hoping to attract Irish immigrants. However, Germans, Norwegians, and Poles also settled there.

The Sands family, who had amassed a fortune as merchants and speculators, laid out their land, located west of Jackson’s property, into blocks and lots for a community to be called “Olympia” as early as 1787. The brothers expected Olympia to become a summer retreat for New Yorkers due to its hilly topography, plentiful water, and refreshing breezes. However, the Sandses’ lots within the historic district were not developed residentially until the mid-1830s to the early 1850s.

In the 1800s and 1810s, the area started developing faster. In the late 1830s and early 1840s, the heirs of John Jackson sold off their estate’s remaining lots on Hudson Avenue. These lots were developed individually or in small groups in the 1840s and 1850s, featuring houses with Greek Revival and Italianate characteristics due to their associations with Athenian democracy.

20th century to present

Some buildings in Vinegar Hill were originally warehouses, which have been converted into loft buildings or office spaces since the early 2000s. One such repurposed building is the firehouse at 227 Front Street, now a loft building.

During the construction of the Manhattan Bridge in the 1900s, significant parts of Vinegar Hill were destroyed. The industrial growth led to the replacement of many houses with factories and warehouses. A notable development was the construction of a large power plant on the East River waterfront by the Consolidated Edison Company in the 1920s. These changes continued until 1961. The shutdown of the Navy Yard in 1966 marked New York’s shift from an industrial to a more service-oriented economy, signaling a period of decline and the area’s diminished connection to the waterfront.