In May 2024 I decided to walk the full length of Humboldt Street in Williamsburg and Greenpount from south to north, and sooner or later, a post will appear concerning it, but first, I want to mention an intersecting street, Maujer, and what can be found there.
First, the pronunciation. The page title gives away what I think it is (rhymes with lawyer, voyeur and Boyer), but for all I know, it’s pronounced as spelled. Despite the Dutch-looking name, attorney Daniel Maujer (1809-1882) was from Guernsey, one of Britain’s Channel Islands. He became an alderman in the 15th Ward, which once encompassed this area. His name was plopped onto the former Remsen Street to avoid confusion with the Brooklyn Heights street so named. How is it pronounced? My guess has always been “Moyer”, but perhaps the locals are more literal-minded and say “Maw-jer.” (cf. Luquer Street, for which I always thought was “LU-ker” but is instead Lu-QUEER).
[see Comments for additional info for the street name]
On Maujer just west of Humboldt is the tall-spired Lutheran Church of St. John the Evangelist, with a rare wood clock that has serendipitously stopped at the stroke of five (the clock is still in the splintered condition it was in when I last checked it in 2011). The congregation goes back to 1847 while this building dates to 1883. Like many old churches in East Williamsburg and Bushwick, there is an inscription in German reflecting the early demographic.
If I have a favorite housing project, it’s the Williamsburg Houses, occupying 12 blocks and approximately 23 acres between Maujer Street on the north, Scholes on the south, Leonard on the west and Bushwick Avenue on the east, were one of the very first housing projects built in NYC, reaching completion in 1938, before the dismaying Le Corbusier-inspired ‘boxes-in-a-park” pattern took hold. They were built by the Williamsburg Associated Architects, which comprised Shreve, Lamb and Harmon (who designed the Empire State Building) and Swiss architect William Lescaze, in a streamlined “International” style.
Facades in tan brick alternate with entrances and storefronts in blue tile. The Williamsburg Houses pioneered the ‘superblock’ concept as Stagg and Ten Eyck Streets were truncated and their roadbeds given over to pedestrian traffic. Never before had streets been closed to accommodate housing. The Williamsburg Houses were officially made a NYC Landmark in 2003.
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8/13/24