It looks like an ordinary Brooklyn corner, but it inadvertently memorializes some of Brooklyn history.
When Bedford-Stuyvesant and southern Williamsburg’s streets were laid out and given names in the early 20th Century, many of them were given the names of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Stone Avenue, a fairly lengthy avenue running from Broadway in Bedford-Stuyvesant south to Linden Boulevard in Brownsville (a few blocks are overlaid by the Eastern Parkway Extension), was named for Thomas Stone, who signed for Maryland. That state figures prominently in Brooklyn history — it was the 400 troops of the Maryland Battalion that kept the British at bay long enough to allow Gen. George Washington to escape with most of his forces during the Battle of Brooklyn at the Old Stone House in August 1776.
In 1981, however, Stone Avenue was renamed for the founder of Brownsville’s Heritage House, Rosetta “Mother” Gaston, and thereby a bit of Brooklyn’s connection to Maryland was hidden in favor of a new designee.
The corner of Stone Avenue and Hull Street in Bed-Stuy is the only remaining corner with the old street name. I imagine I’m dooming it to extinction by featuring it here, but Brooklyn street signs are slowly being replaced by new upper-lowercase signs in the Clearview font, so its days are numbered, anyway.
10/15/15