Brooklyn Opens a Street (Through Your Backyard)

Etna St. opening document; Brooklyn, N.Y., Department of Law, Corporation Counsel records, 2013.015; Brooklyn Historical Society

A few years ago BHS was awarded a Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) “Hidden Collections” grant to make hundreds of our maps, manuscripts, and photograph collections available to researchers.  Earlier this year we were once again awarded this grant to make even more of our historical materials accessible to our patrons.  But before I get into the details of one of our exciting new projects, I would like to introduce myself—my name is John Zarrillo, and prior to joining BHS I served as the James D. Watson Archivist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where I oversaw the processing and digitization of the Nobel laureate’s extensive collection.  For the next year I will be working on the records of Brooklyn’s Corporation Counsel.

The Brooklyn Corporation Counsel records originally consisted of 48 dusty record cartons containing stacks of tightly packed legal documents dating from the 1840s to 1920. The Brooklyn Corporation Counsel served as the head of the Law Department and chief legal counsel for the City of Brooklyn (prior to consolidation with the other boroughs in 1898), and later as the head of the Brooklyn office of the Corporation Counsel of the City of New York (1898-1920). On the whole, the collection documents the activities of the Brooklyn Corporation Counsel itself, as well as the day-to-day legal issues that the citizens of Brooklyn faced in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. It also documents the rapid expansion of Brooklyn’s infrastructure, especially its streets and water supply, as the city’s population exploded.

Etna St. opening diagram; Brooklyn, N.Y., Department of Law, Corporation Counsel records, 2013.015; Brooklyn Historical Society

The document above was produced by The Long Island Title Guarantee Co. for the opening of Etna St. in the Cypress Hills neighborhood of Brooklyn.  The city needed to acquire the necessary land from the current property owners in order to open the street, so they paid the title guarantee company to search all existing records to determine who actually held the titles to the affected lots. In the diagram we can clearly see where the new street will be laid out, as well the specific lots which would be affected.  Now try to imagine if one morning you received notice that your home happened to be in the way of newly planned street.  I envision a lot of angry neighbors banding together, either to fight the opening or to make sure that they are more than fairly compensated.  The recent controversy over the Atlantic Yards project and the opening of the Barclays Center clearly illustrate that this is something that still affects the lives of Brooklynites today.

List of property owners; Brooklyn, N.Y., Department of Law, Corporation Counsel records, 2013.015; Brooklyn Historical Society

The document also includes a fairly detailed history of the ownership of the land from 1836 to the date the document was created (1893).  Given the rural nature of Cypress Hills at the time, it’s likely that the land was used for farming. While some property owners were probably quick to accept a cash pay-out from the city, others may have resisted in an effort to maintain their agrarian lifestyle.

It’s these types of records that we think researchers will be clamoring for—they document the growth of Brooklyn on both the macro level (the rapid transformation of rural farmland to residential neighborhoods) and the micro level (records of individual property owners and families affected by that growth).

In the coming months I’ll be posting more examples of records that provide new insight into the history of Brooklyn (I already have my eyes on something for Bike Month in May). We expect the collection will open to researchers in late 2014.