The land that encompassed Williamsburg was first purchased by the Dutch West Indies Company in 1638. By 1661, the Dutch charters the area as the Town of Boswijck, which would later be known as Bushwick after the English takeover of New Netherland three years later. In 1802, entrepreneur Richard M. Woodhull purchases thirteen acres of land near North 2nd Street and names the area Williamsburgh with an “h” after Jonathan Williams, the engineer that he hired to survey the area. Williamsburgh then becomes incorporated into the Town of Bushwick as the Village of Williamsburgh before becoming its own city in 1852. However, three years later, the City of Williamsburg was incorporated into the City of Brooklyn in the eastern district. Subsequently, the “h” in its name disappears.
Map of Williamsburgh from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/
1845_Williamsburg_Map.jpg/437px-1845_Williamsburg_Map.jpg
Graham and Metropolitan Avenues, Brooklyn. June 01, 1937 (NYPL), link obtained from
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/
WBG/wbg-history-photos.htm
Ventures to develop Williamsburg all failed until the early 1800s when the Wallabout and Newtown Turnpike was built, connecting the coast to the interior. During the 1830s, Irish, Germans, and Austrian capitalists transformed Williamsburg into a fashionable resort that attracted many prominent people. With industrialization settling in in the 19th century, the waterfront became littered with factories and Williamsburg became the birthplace of some of the largest industrial firms in America.
The construction of the Williamsburg Bridge in 1903 marked the beginning of the mass migration of people to Williamsburg. The first to come were the thousands of Lower East Side Jews who crossed the river in hopes of a better life. Next were immigrants from Eastern Europe, including Lithuania, Poland and Russia, and Italy. Between 1900 and 1920, the population doubled, and the neighborhood had the most densely populated blocks in New York City.
- Photo from brooklynjewish.org
After WWII, many Eastern European Jews left for America and the Hasidic community in Williamsburg grew substantially. The ever increasing population of Williamsburg spurred many public housing projects from the mid-1930s to the 1960s. And in the 1960s, thousands Puerto Ricans came for the abundance of factory jobs, followed by the Dominicans and other Latin Americans in the 1980s.
Fenced enclosure of Williamsburg Steel Production company. From http://gothamist.com/2012/05/03/
28_photos_of_williamsburg_youve_nev.php#photo-28
However, the number of manufacturing jobs dropped from 93,000 in 1961 to less than 12,000 by the 1990s. This left thousands of Hispanics unemployed. The decline in manufacturing would lead to increasing tensions between and among the Hasidic and Hispanic communities over government funding and housing.
In the last 20-30 years, cheap and affordable housing attracted many artists to move into the North side and many galleries, restaurants, and shops opened. This has led to Williamsburg’s portrayal as a hipster community. However, in 2005, a large scale rezoning of the waterfront was approved and many long-abandoned factories were converted to expensive condominiums and apartments. As new buildings sprung up, affordable housing diminished and many have been forced to leave.
