Stuyvesant Heights, Brooklyn

Stuyvesant Heights is a neighborhood in north-central Brooklyn (New York City) founded in the mid-1600s when the borough was incorporated as a city at that time. The borders of the neighborhood are from Throop/Kingston Avenues (bordering the neighborhood of Bedford), Park Place/Ralph Avenue (Crown Heights), East New York Avenue (Brownsville), Van Sinderen Avenue (East New York), and Broadway (Bushwick). The main thoroughfare is Malcolm X Boulevard.

History

Stuyvesant Heights was founded by Peter Stuyvesant in 1640 and hence received its name. Originally farmland it was later inducted as a community after the American Revolutionary War. In 1838 the Weeksville subsection was recognized as one of the first free African American communities in the United States. [Ramirez, Anthony. [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/nyregion/05weeksville.html?_r=1&oref=slogin "Haven for Blacks in Civil War Riots Now Safeguards History"] , "The New York Times", June 5, 2005. Accessed November 17, 2007.] In 1890, the city of Brooklyn founded another subsection Ocean Hill, a working-class predominantly Italian enclave.

The neighborhood merged with Bedford in 1930 to become the hyphenated name Bedford-Stuyvesant. This created the second largest Black community in New York. It has a historic district between Throop Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard just north of Fulton Street with well-kept brownstones with middle-income African American families residing in them. Many churches are well known in the area, including Our Lady of Victory, Our Lady of the Presentation (both Roman Catholic Churches), and the United House of Prayer for all People.

In 1968, Ocean Hill and neighboring Brownsville experienced the worst teacher strike in history when the central Board of Education gave the community board neighborhood control. This conflicted with the teachers' contract and thus caused outrage. The strike ended when the community board decided to reverse the contract and reinstate teachers.

The 1970s was the worst experience for Bedford-Stuyvesant as a whole. Many buildings were abandoned and burned as well as retail outlets. The area was resurrected in the mid-1980s when major funding from the New York City Council to revitalize the neighborhood.

Stuyvesant Heights was the original location of St. John's College (now St. John's University), founded in 1870. Its first building was completed in the same year and sited on the corner of Lewis Avenue and Willoughby Avenue. St. John's began construction of a new campus circa 1939 in Jamaica, Queens, where the university is located today.

Recently the area was again referred separately as just Stuyvesant Heights. It has undergone gentrification as well.

The ZIP codes for the neighborhood are 11213, 11221 and 11233.

ee also

*Bedford-Stuyvesant
*Ocean Hill
*Weeksville

References

Landmarks

*Our Lady of the Presentation Church [http://www.dioceseofbrooklyn.org/cgi-bin/pa_Search.pl?SearchLinksButton=LinkDetail&ParishID=3423]
* [http://www.insideschools.org/fs/school_profile.php?id=1055/ Boys and Girls High School]
* [http://www.brooklyn.net/neighborhoods/stuyvesant_heights.html/ The Stuyvesant Heights Historic District]