Volume 17 , Issue 44

1887 - The Old Flatbush Road (Breukelen)

In The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, dated 13 Nov. 1887, Sunday, page 6, we found this article concerning "The Old Flatbush Road," where Jan Evertse Bout established himself in 1645.

Found on Newspapers.com

In tracing up the history of early Brooklyn, we find that the first settlement within the limits of the present City of Brooklyn took place at Gowanus about 1636. The next was in 1637 at the Wallabout. In 1636 Flatlands, originally called Amersfoort, was settled, and in the same year Andries Hudde and Wolfert Geintesen "purchased several plots on Long Island," in which was included the land on which Flatbush now stood in 1887. The ferry was started in 1642, and there was soon thereafter established a caraway from the ferry up along the present line of Fulton Street to the present junction of Flatbush Avenue and thence on Amersfoort or Flatlands.

In 1645 Jan Evertse Bout established himself on the road leading from the ferry to Flatbush and on to Flatlands, and the following year his example was followed by Huyck Aartsen, Jacob Stoffelson, Pieter Cornelissen and Jans Dirksen, and, in 1647, Gerrit Wolphertsen Van Couwenhoven and others settled in the same neighborhood, the settlement occupying both sides of the road. The village was located in the vicinity of the present junction of Hoyt and Smith Streets with Fulton. The wish of the sellers to "found a town at their own expense" was responded to with a charter in 1646 from the colonial council, and they named the new village Breukelen, after a town in Holland.

The town of Midwout, or Flatbush, was started about 1651, and in consequence of its central location, "midway" between Breukelen and Amersfoort, the first church of the settlers was erected there in 1654. It was ordered built by the governor, who seemed to have exercised supreme power in ecclesiastical, as well as civil and military affairs. The governor ordered the people of Breukelen and Amersfoort to assist the people of Midwout in cutting timber to build the house.

In 1704, after the English got possession, the commissioners laid out the King's highway from the town of Breukelen east "through Bedford town to Bedford Lane, etc." There is no record of the Flatbush and Flatland road being the King's highway, but they had been told that it was so known and they had no doubt that upon examination it would be found that it was entitled to share the title with the road through Bedford to Jamaica. Whether this be true or not it was a fact that to the best of their information on the 24th of March 1818, the Brooklyn, Jamaica and Flatbush Turnpike was incorporated, and that was the road which the older citizens of the present day remember, and speak of with so much disrespect in consequence of its roughness. This road was laid out four rods wide and followed the line of the old King's Highway. It extended from Brooklyn, east of the City Hall, cut the present line of Fulton Street, making some slight indentations, on one side of the other, until it reached Flatbush Avenue; thence along Flatbush Avenue to the junction of Navy Street, then diverging slightly to the east, running diagonally through the block to the junction of Raymond Street and Hanson Place; beyond Hanson Place diagonally across the block now occupied by the Atlantic Avenue Railroad Depot; diagonally across Atlantic Avenue to the corner of Fifth, and this clock to its southeast corner. In the center of this block the turnpike, and before that the King's Highway, and before that the Old Caraway, branched off to Bedford Corners and beyond.

From the corner of Pacific Street and Sixth Avenue the Flatbush Turnpike ran diagonally across the enter of the next block to Bergen Street, to Clifton Place, across the southwest corner of the block to St. Marks Avenue; to corner Prospect Place and Vanderbilt Avenue; diagonally across the southwest corner of the next block to Park Place, midway between Vanderbilt and Undersell Avenues; across to corner of Undersell Avenue and Bergen Street; to Douglass, to Degraw, to the Eastern Parkway, across the reservoir and thence through Prospect Park to Flatbush.

During the Revolutionary War the Old Black Horse Tavern stood on the King's Highway a little above what was then the junction of DeKalb Avenue and Fulton Street. This tavern was subsequently kept for many years by Isaac De Voe, and it was afterward owned by Robert De Bevolsee. In 1818 Mr. De Voe moved from his farm to a dwelling a little above the tavern, on the same side of the road, which was built by his son-in-law, Samuel Van Buren, and which was still in existence. It sets back from Fulton Street, on the north side, and would readily be recognized by name by a large portion of Brooklyn's male population. It was back in 1887 known as the Abbey.

Near this point, east of the Abbey, used to stand, prior to 1850, an old sycamore tree, which marked the place where the earthworks line of defense crossed the turnpike during the Revolutionary War, and in 1812.

Further east, on the corner of a road which ran east to Fort Greene, stood another tavern kept by Charles Poling, who was connected with the horse artillery of the county. The artillery used to assemble in front of this tavern when they paraded. Opposite this tavern was a hay scale, which, during the Revolution, had a profile of King George on top, but after the war was over and King George was at a discount in public opinion the name of Franklin was put under the profile and thereafter it saved its time as the patriotic and King George hating Benjamin.

It was a little strange that a trick almost identical with this should have been performed at the other end of the same road. During the war the old tavern at Flatbush was called the King's Arms, and was kept by a Mrs. Schoonmaker. After the war was over an effigy of the American eagle was added, representing it as flying away with the King's Arms.

The old sign thus altered held its own for many years thereafter. In 1811, a rather singular character resided in a small house just above the Black Horse Tavern, who was known as the Rain Water Doctor. He was a German by birth, and he emigrated to this country in the year named and came to reside in Brooklyn. He was an educated physician, honest, skillful, but extremely eccentric, and noted for his charity. He generally prescribed herbs and simples to the thousands of patients who flocked to consult him, from New York and out on Long Island, but his singular prescription, "to drink rain water," won him the sobriquet by which he was generally known. He did not give himself any distinct name, but he sometimes signed himself "Sylvan, enemy of human disease." He pretended to sell his remedies for cost, and frequently refused liberal offers of compensation. But his career in Brooklyn was brought to a sudden end. One Apollos Nicolls came to him for relief, but died soon after he placed himself under the doctor's care. The death of this patient so affected the doctor that he erected a marble slab over the grave, in the public burying ground, located on what was then Livingston Street, back of the county buildings, on which was long inscription expressing his grief in unique and, almost unintelligible language. In 1812 the Rainwater Doctor left Brooklyn and went to Providence, R. I., where after making a great success, he died in 1815. There were others who adopted his name of the Rainwater Doctor, among them Sylvan Gardener, in Roxbury, Mass.; Octavious Plinth, and Dr. C. Humbert, alias Sylvan Gardner, who died 1825, near Philadelphia, at "the supposed age of 100 years," but it was evident that they were imitators, who gained reputation and money by assuming the role adopted by the original "enemy of human disease."

About the commencement of this century John Jackson had a residence on the east side of the turnpike, on what was then the northeast corner of Navy Street and Lafayette Avenue. His grounds extended from opposite the junction of Livingston Street to the south side of Hanson Place. He displayed much taste in horticulture and had an extensive greenhouse.

The old road diverged from the line of Flatbush Avenue, at the junction of Navy Street, and ran diagonally across the block to the junction of Raymond and Hanson Place. On Raymond, near Hanson, may still be seen (in 1887) several houses which had their fronts diagonally to the Street, showing the line of the old turnpike.

Opposite the Jackson estate, mentioned above, was the farm of George Powers, a patriot and soldier during the Revolution, who returned to his home in Brooklyn at the termination of the war, and, by shrewd speculation in buying up teams, cattle, wagons, etc., cheap from he retiring British, he made large gains. He bought the farm from Michael Grant Bergen, who was a loyalist, and who emigrated to Nova Scotia at the close of the war. This property had been in the Bergen family since 1668. The old house was rebuilt at the time of the Revolution by Michael Grant Bergen; and it seemed there was a romance connected therewith. Legend says that Michael was a suitor for the hand of a Miss Couwenhoven, of Bedford, and he thought he was successful. So he went to work on the hundred year old manson and result it with all the conveniences then known to Brooklyn architecture. But "The best laid schemes of mice and men, Gang aft aglae."

Miss Couwenhvoen did not respond favorably to Michael's suit, so in the midst of his disappointment he sold out his mansion and migrated to Nova Scotia, and there raised a family of loyal British subjects.

The turnpike ran diagonally across the block where the Long Island depot then was, to Fort Greene Place and Atlantic Avenue. It was in this block that the old toll gate stood, about one hundred and fifty feet from the present Atlantic Avenue, on the east side of the highway, used to stand the residence of John Couwenhoven. Near where the old road crossed what was then Atlantic Avenue was a tavern known as Baker's during the Revolution, and later on as the Bull's Head. This tavern was the end of the long march of the British in the battle of Brooklyn, when they flanked the American forces by way of the Jamaica turnpike.

One hundred years ago (1787) the Flatbush road swept along beyond the toll gate, through fields and woods, up to the top of Flatbush hill, down and winding around what was then known as the Reservoir, past a building known as the Valley Grove Tavern, near the boundary line between Flatbush and Brooklyn; then on through the eastern edge of the park to Flatbush.

There were few houses on the road between the old toll gate and the Brooklyn and Flatbush boundary line. The only buildings were the Bull's Head Tavern, mentioned above; a small house about half way up the Brooklyn side of the hill, a tavern called the Farmer's Resort and Citizen's Rest and the Valley Grove Tavern, the last two being located within 500 years of each other. These were all on the east side of the road. That portion of the road which passed through Prospect Park was almost uninhabitable, on account of the agues and other malarial diseases arising from he stagnant ponds hidden among the thick woods which covered this locality.

The Valley Grove or Brush Tavern, later known as Hicks' Post Tavern, was located just north of the spot where the memorial plate marks the battle ground. Valley Grove was then known as Battle Pass. Before the Revolution this was part of Flatbush Pass. The defenses of this pass during the battle of Brooklyn were a crescent shaped intrenchment just within the Village of Flatbush and diagonally across the Main Street and a small redoubt at the Valley Grove to guard the passage to the Porte road. Near this redoubt stood an immense white oak tree, mentioned in Governor Dongan's patent as one of the boundary marks between Brooklyn and Flatbush. It was felled across the road by the Americans, and in consequence of the dense woods to the south, the swamp in the north (the porte road ran west), if formed a considerable obstacle to the enemy's advance. Subsequently a free stone monument was erected to mark the division line.

The Porte road was a lane diverging from Flatbush turnpike, near the point named, running west, following the general line of First Street, across Freeke's Mill Dam to East River. Sullivan's command was stationed at the junction of the Porte and Flatbush roads, and Hand's Rifle Corps was posted on the brow of the oil on either side of the Flatbush road, 300 or 400 feet south of its junction with the Porte road. Lord Sterling's forces formed the two sides of a triangle, on which the hypothenuse was a line drawn from he Flatbush road, near its junction with the Porte road, to the shore of the bay, near the foot of Twenty-third Street.

De Heister, commander of the Hessians who comprised the center of the English Army, was located at Flatbush. At daybreak on that famous and fateful 27th of August, 1776, De Heister opened a cannonade upon the redoubt on the neighboring hill, where Hand's Rifle Corps was posted, supported by Colonels Willys and Miles, on the Bedford road. General Sullivan hastened forward with 400 riflemen on a reconnaissance along the slope of the hills to the eastward, not knowing that Clinton had gained his rear by the flank movement to East New York. Late in the afternoon, hearing Clint's signal guns, De Heister ordered Count Donap to charge the redoubt, which was quickly carried by the Hessian Yagers, who pressed forward into the woods south of the Porte road, driving the American riflemen before them and taking possession of the coverts and lurking places from which the riflemen were dislodged. The overwhelming force of the British Grenadiers and German Yagers pressed the Americans back at the point of the bayonet. Some tried to escape by the Porte road and across the dam at Freeke's mill. Sterling, with his Marylanders, made a heroic attempt to turn the current of battle, but failed through being overpowered by numbers.

One hundred years (1787) and more ago there were three other roads which branched off from the Flatbush road which were worthy of note in this connection, as they had been in common use up to within a very few years. One branched off to the westward, from the Flatbush road, about the junction of Fifth and Atlantic Avenues. It was laid out in 1704 and extended along the line of Fifth Avenue to Union Street and thence on across blocks to Gowns. Another road was Martens's lane, which extended from the old Flatbush and New Utrecht road, went along the present southern border of Greenwood Cemetery to the coast road, which ran along Gowanus Bay on or about the line of Third Avenue. The third was the Old Clove road which branched off to the east from the Flatbush road, followed about the line of Malone Street to the east of Nostrand Avenue and then ran north through Bedford Pass to Bedford Corners. To come down to more recent years there used to be located in the block between Fifth, Sixth and Atlantic Avenues and Wothward, a place famous in the history of Brooklyn and remembered by every old Brooklynite of the present day (1887), known as Parmentier's Garden. It was situated in the point lying between the two roads where the turnpikes branched off to Flatbush and Jamaica. This garden covered twenty-five acres, stocked with a great variety of trees, plants, shrubs, and plants useful ornamental, indigos and exotic. Andre Parmentier bought the land in 1825 and brought it to that state of perfection which made the garden famous. He died in 1830 and soon afterward (1838), the place succumbed to the march of improvement, being sold to speculators and divided up into building lots.

The old Flatbush road was then almost obliterated. On Raymond Street, near Hanson place, may be seen several houses fronting diagonally on the Street, showing the line of the old road. On the east corner of Fort Greene place and Atlantic Avenue, a saloon building stood diagonally to the corner, and in the center of the next block, where the turnpikes diverged, were several old houses then fronting on Atlantic Avenue, but the rears of which were formerly fronted on the turnpike.

On the corner of Sixth Avenue and Pacific Street, a small frame house sets diagonally to the corner, showing where the road crossed the end of the block to dean Street. Across the corner of the block south and west of Carlton Avenue and Dean Street, the lots were vacant, and a depression in the ground showed the former line of the road. On the southeast corner of Carlton Avenue and Bergen Street a vine clad cottage sat on a hill above the Street which formerly fronted on the turnpike. Beyond this there were no actual traces of the road where it ran diagonally across the blocks to ST. Marks place, and to Prospect place and Vanderbilt Avenue, the blocks being pretty well built up, but from Prospect place to Park place, the land lies unenclosed and unoccupied, as it does in the next block to Butler Street, and where the road crossed these two blocks diagonally from Vanderbilt Avenue to Undersell the depression in the ground shows clearly the line of the old road.

On the south side of Butler Street, which had been out through the hill, there still stood on the hill a one story dwelling with a Dutch roof and a porch in front. This was one of the old time residences on the Flatbush turnpike, the bed of which, though overgrown with grass, was still perfectly distinct here where it passed through a cutting, over the hill. This house and Colonel Collier's were the only ones which fronted on the line of the old road as it passed through what was private property and on over the hill, through the nursery of the park. In this block from Butler to Douglass, the road was intact, though not used. The banks showed where it was cut through, the depression showed the result of wheel works' wear and tear and the long lines of stately trees on either side still nod and bow in the breezes as they did years ago when the road was a gay thoroughfare to Coney Island, or on Avenue of trade for the sturdy and phlegmatic Dutch farmers.

Beyond the nursery on Prospect Hill, comes the Eastern Parkway, that broad and landmark obliterating thoroughfare, which was cut through this small mountain, and beyond rises Reservoir hill, on the side of which in former days a gentleman with the euphonious name of Sam Bunck, kept a hostelry, anterior to 1861.

Beyond this point it would be useless to endeavor to trace the old Flatbush road, because the ornamenting of Prospect Park had caused it to become a beautiful obliterator, and when you get beyond the park in going to Flatbush, why, there you are.
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