As a native Brooklynite (I carefully try to excise any Brooklynishness from my accent, since I’ve always wondered what New Yorkers in general have against a final “r” in words — it’s not “cah”, it’s “car”) I protest the notion of a Manhattan Avenue in the first place.
Manhattan Avenue, like its parallel routes in East Williamsburg and Greenpoint, runs according to house numbers from Broadway (just north of Flushing Avenue) north and northwest to Newtown Creek. Until about 1886, Manhattan Avenue, or rather the route it would eventually follow, was known as Ewen Street (for 19th Century city surveyor Daniel Ewen) from Broadway to about Richardson Street; Orchard Street, from Van Pelt (now Engert) Avenue north to Greenpoint Avenue; and Union Avenue (in the colonial era, Hill Road), the rest of the way. In 1886, Union Avenue and Orchard Street had become Manhattan Avenue, which, at the time, remained separate from Ewen. In May 1897, the entire stretch became Manhattan Avenue; at that time Daniel Ewen became lost to memory, as far as a NYC street name remembrance goes.
In 1909 the City created a large, rambling park on the Greenpoint-Williamsburg border, between roughly Nassau Avenue, North 12th, Bayard, Leonard, Lorimer Streets and Driggs Avenue, naming it McCarren Park after a just-deceased, prominent local state senator. The creation of the park gave city engineers a chance to re-jigger the street layout, and Manhattan Avenue to the north was united with the old Ewen Street section, creating a direct north-south route, and Manhattan Avenue as we know it was created.
My objection? In your wildest imagination … would there ever be a street named for Brooklyn on Manhattan Island? Some Manhattanites rarely visit Brooklyn or any other borough, and are proud of the fact. What’s more, in Brooklyn voted for consolidation with Manhattan by a mere 200+ vote margin — were it not for those 200+ votes, Manhattan would still have a rival across the mighty East. Why should we honor such a traditional enemy?
Here’s a look at Manhattan Avenue at Calyer looking north in 2017. No doubt, more needle towers now challenge the slant-roofed Citicorp tower for supremacy in the northbound view.
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10/4/23
16 comments
Remember that in Brooklyn you will find Manhattan Beach as well. Not sure how it got that name. There is also a New York Avenue which is part of the series of New York State “city avenues” in Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, and East Flatbush. So this issue can be argued forever and ever. That New York Avenue refers to Manhattan and The Bronx, because these avenues were also named pre-1898 consolidation.
While you’re on the subject of Manhattan Avenue, the best donuts in all of NYC can be found at Peter Pan, on Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint.
I know about Peter Pan
Wondering why “Manhattan” was chosen for a street that doesn’t lead to the place called Manhattan. Same question can be thrown at some “Rockaway” named streets. Beyond naming it that to attract development there might some other reasons. Various translations from Lenape language regarding the original word “Manhattan” is derived from, either defines it as a name for a thicket where bow and arrow wood can be found or a hilly island where bow and arrow wood can be found. By the time the renaming of the streets occurred I would have to assume thickets had long been removed from the area.
Rockaway Parkway in East Flatbush and Canarsie leads to Jamaica Bay, where there was once a ferry across the water to the Rockaways.
Growing up in Brooklyn, I never ventured into Williamsburg or Greenpoint, but I was intrigued to read about Ewen Ave. and surveyor Daniel Ewen. It happened that when IBM hired me in 1968, they had me report to a school in Port Ewen, NY. I’d never heard of the place, and jokingly pronounced it “Port Urine”, (and still do!). Now for the rest of the story:
Daniel had a brother, John Ewen, who was a civil engineer, and participated in the surveying and planning of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He went on to serve as the chief engineer for the New York and Harlem Railroad, the Street Commissioner for New York City, and was the city comptroller from 1845 and 1848. He was also a successful businessman who was elected president of the Pennsylvania Coal Company. The company had a coal depot in the New York town of Port Ewen, which also takes his name.
Port Ewen was the terminus for The Delaware and Hudson Canal. Between 1828 and 1899, the canal’s barges carried anthracite coal from the mines of northeastern Pennsylvania to the Hudson River and thence to market in New York City.
Thank you for the information posted. Port Ewen is just south of Kingston, NY, where Rondout Creek intersects the Hudson River, and I’ve always wondered about the origin of the name Ewen. Now I know.
Route 9W’s original alignment crosses the creek there on an historic suspension bridge built about a century ago; the route also uses a newer alignment immediately to the east that includes a more modern bridge.
Just before the turn of the century, we vacationed in that area. We had a cafe-style lunch at a Mexican restaurant in the Rondout district before boarding a tour boat for some sightseeing. It was so long ago that we photographed the trip using a camera with actual film. The photos survive today in, another remnant of the past, an actual photo album (which I’ll look at as soon as I finish writing this). Kingston & the region around it was such a nice place. Local signs described it as being “..where the Catskills meet the Hudson River”. Too bad NY metamorphosed into such a dystopian place.
The Delaware and Hudson Canal was very important to the people of New York City. It’s opening in 1828 brought less expensive coal for heating and cooking fuel for residents and businesses in New York. At its western end, the Canal Company installed a railroad to bring the coal from the coal mines to the canal terminus. The Directors of the Canal Company purchased, from England, a steam locomotive to be used over it. This was the first steam powered locomotive in the United States. However, there was a flaw in this plan. The primitive railroad tracks they had laid were wooden, with steel straps attached to the them. The locomotive proved too heavy for these early tracks (which worked fine with horse-drawn cars). They purchased a lighter locomotive and found a buyer for the original one.
> were it not for those 200+ votes, Manhattan would still have a rival across the mighty East. Why should we honor such a traditional enemy?
As I recall from reading Greater Gotham, that’s not actually true. The vote wasn’t binding at all, and the mayors of both Manhattan and Brooklyn tried to stop the consolidation from happening, but the state government overrode them and did it anyway because they wanted to dilute the power of Tammany Hall on New York City politics. So don’t blame 200+ Brooklynites, blame Levi Morton and the other Republican legislators in the state government at the time.
“Blame Levi Morton & other republican legislators..” Tammany Hall was the seat of municipal corruption. If the NY State Legislature was able to diffuse the bad influence of Tammany Hall they deserve praise. It’s too bad that there’s no one in either NYC or NY State government with those instincts:
https://nypost.com/2023/10/03/new-yorks-lack-of-leadership-is-turning-the-empire-state-into-the-flop-of-the-heap/
Home of the delicious Manhattan Special Espresso Soda. The headquarters is on Manhattan Ave and that is where the soda got its name.
The so called New York accent is actually an immigrants accent and is not that old.
Natives of New Orleans also speak that way because N.O. was also a huge immigrant
entry point for the U.S.
Greenpoint Park was the name from when it opened in 1906 until 1909, when it was officially renamed after Patrick Henry McCarren, Democratic machine boss of Brooklyn,
dropped dead. Interestingly, it was originally planned to name the park after him. The fusion members of the Board of Aldermen thought it was bad policy to have a public
piece of property named after a living man. It was officially renamed McCarren Park on Friday, Dec. 10, 1909.
Keep in mind that the Glendale and East River Railroad (aka the Manhattan Beach route) ran along Richardson Street, which is probably why the name changed there.
Also Manhattan Special (coffee soda) is made on Manhattan Ave.
Ah, Levi P. Morton. He was the 22nd Vice President of the USA and once lived on the northeast corner of 5th Avenue and 42nd Street. A wonderful old building that was replaced by an obscene structure.
As a kid back in the 50’s my Father worked in Williamsburg at Williamsburg Steel. We lived on Manhattan Ave for a few years before coming
back to the Bronx.