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By Brooklyn’s “golden era,” 1920-1957, Italian stores were popping up everywhere, as were parishes named after Italian saints. The smell of fresh marinara lingered in streets like 18th…
Bensonhurst got its name from Arthur W. Benson, founder of the Brooklyn Gas Light Company, who, in 1835, began “to purchase land near the old family farm in…
When Italians first began to pour into New York late in the 19th century, a new era was underway—one of technological advances, divisive conflict over immigration, and, most…
A major cause which forced the Chinese movement into was the increasing rent in the Manhattan Chinatown. Due to the influx of immigration and foreign capital, this enclave…
After the creation of the Hart-Cellar Act in 1965, which abolished nation-of-origins restrictions, New York had experienced the first major influx of Chinese immigrants. Unlike before, when the…
Before they settled in Bensonhurst, Muslim immigrants were attracted to other areas of Brooklyn such as Bay Ridge, Atlantic Avenue, and Williamsburg. Muslim immigrants initially settled in these areas,…
Around the 1990s, Russian Jews became the predominant Jewish group in Bensonhurst. Many left the Soviet Union because of persecution. Anti-Semitism was prevalent over there and parents did…
The New Utrecht Reformed Church was first suggested by Dutch settlers in 1677. Before that, settlers from New Utrecht would travel to the parishes in Flatbush, Flatlands and…
New Utrecht describes current day Bensonhurst; Eighty-fourth Street between Sixteenth and Eighteenth Avenues. Bensonhurst was founded by Anthony Janszoon van Salee. He obtained the right to 200 acres…
The second wave of immigration from the Muslim world to the United States began in the mid-19th century. These immigrants mostly consisted of unskilled and uneducated Arabs from…
