A Brief History of Sunset Park
Sunset Park, as an actual community known by that name, was not founded until 1966 and before that would only be described by the places and communities nearby to it. Sunset Park is part of community District 7 and is bordered by Park Slope, Bay Ridge, and Borough Park. Sunset Park mostly agricultural land until the nineteenth century and at first was divided between two original Dutch towns: New Utrecht and Brooklyn. Sunset Park, since the beginning, was a key place for immigrants to settle and live because most immigrants came only with enough knowledge to work in factories and in ports. The first few immigrants were the Dutch and English farmers who settled the land but by 1855 there were many Irish immigrants who moved to this area. The Irish were the ones to pave the streets and build the piers and industrial structures that are numerous in Sunset Park. The Irish were also the ones to start laying down the tracks for trolleys and transit lines. Eventually Scandinavians became a big part of Sunset Park society and soon were joined by the Italians and the Poles. Many immigrants were attracted to Sunset Park because there were many jobs available for the skilled and unskilled worker alike and so it was the perfect place to start anew. Soon enough the Norwegians, who were familiar with Sunset Park because of maritime trade, began to settle in Sunset Park also in the 1830s. More Scandinavians and North German immigrants began to settle in Sunset Park after being unemployed due to the replacement of the sailboat with the steam-powered ships. The Finns started to settle in Sunset Park in 1880 and by 1910 they had created “Finn Town” whose center was at Eighth Avenue and 43rd Street. The Finn were some of the first group of immigrants to start building their own houses from the ground up. Even now Finn town is one of the better parts of Sunset Park and spread over Fourth to Eighth Avenues and 40th to 50th Streets. In 1916 another way of industrial Finnish immigrants moved to Sunset Park and started building the first Cooperative housing in Sunset Park which was eventually referred to as “The Poorhouse,” and they still live on today to be affordable housing. In the late-nineteenth century Italians and Poles started to make their own settlements in Sunset Park west of Third Avenue, these Italians were attracted by the jobs in the docks and longshore jobs. The Poles, however, took a different route and became the gravediggers and landscapers of Sunset Park and conveniently began to settle close to Greenwood Cemetery. There were also Greeks and mainly Russian Jews who also called Sunset Park home, but they made very little appearance and settled in only small numbers. With the building of the transit line (now the N train) that went right through Sunset Park settling in Sunset Park became easier and more feasible since there would be a quick and convenient way to get to Manhattan, when necessary or desired. Norwegian Lutherans also built a hospital in Sunset Park that is now known as Lutheran Medical Center, and has provided free and low cost healthcare to the poorer inhabitants of Sunset Park and has also played a big role in the rise of Sunset Park. In the end of the 1950s many Puerto Ricans began moving into Sunset Park and there were also a few Chinese who were settling there also. In 1950 Puerto Ricans counted as only 2 percent of the population but by 1970 counted as 40 percent of the population of Sunset Park. With the arrival of Puerto Ricans and eventually other Hispanics there began to appear bodegas and carnicerias, etc. Even with all of the immigration there was never a substantial amount of Black Americans who settled in Sunset Park, even though many Hispanics other than Puerto Rican have decided to settle there. And finally in 1987 Hispanics made up 32.8% of the population in Sunset Park, the Chinese were 11.7% and finally the Italians made up 11.5%, there were substantial amounts of other Europeans such as the Irish, Polish, Scandinavian and there were also Middle Eastern settlers in Sunset park. Sunset Park still continues to be a very diverse neighborhood filled with mostly immigrants.
