1 History

1.1 Independent Williamsburgh

In 1638, the Dutch West India Company first purchased the area's land from the local Native Americans. In 1661, the company chartered the Town of Boswijck, including land that would later become Williamsburg. After the English takeover of New Netherland in 1664, the town's name was anglified to Bushwick. In 1792, real estate speculator Richard M. Woodhull acquired 13 acres (53,000 m²) near what is now North 2nd Street. He had Col. Jonathan Williams, a U.S. Engineer, survey the property, and named it Williamsburgh (with an h at the end) in his honor.

Williamsburgh was incorporated as the Village of Williamsburgh within the Town of Bushwick in 1827. In two years it had a fire company, a post office and a population of over 1,000. The deep drafts along the East River encoraged industrialists, many from Germany, to build shipyards around Williamsburgh. Raw material was shipped in, and finished product s were sent out of many factories straight to the docks. Several sugar barons built processing refineries . Now all are gone except Domino Sugar (formerly Havermeyer & Elder). Shipbuilding was also an important industry here. The great ironclad warship USS Monitor was built in neighboring Greenpoint. And there were several beer breweries as well as a variety of other industries.

Reflecting its increasing urbanization, Williamsburgh separated from Bushwick as the Town of Wiliamsburgh in 1840. It became the City of Williamsburgh in 1851, which was organized into three wards. The old First Ward roughly coincides with the South Side and the Second Ward with the North Side, with the modern boundary at Grand Avenue. The Third Ward was to the east of these, beginning to approach modern Eastern Williamsburg.

1.2 In Brooklyn's Eastern District

In 1855, the City of Williamsburgh, along with the adjoining Town of Bushwick, were annexed into the City of Brooklyn as the so-called Eastern District. The First Ward of Williamsburgh became Brooklyn's 13th Ward, the Second Ward Brooklyn's 14th Ward, and the Third Ward Brooklyn's 15th and 16th Wards.

In modern times the conception of Williamsburg (which lost its h with the Brooklyn merger) has expanded to cover areas not historically a part of the City of Williamsburgh. Much of what has later come to be understood as the heart of Williamsburg, the area south of Division Avenue in the west and Broadway in the east, was actually originally the Wallabout section of the City of Brooklyn. Also, much of what is today called East Williamsburg was originally organized as Brooklyn's 18th Ward from the Bushwick annexation, exclusive of the 27th and 28th Wards encompassing what is today called Bushwick, which were split off in 1892.

During its period as part of Brooklyn's Eastern District, the area achieved remarkable industrial, cultural, and economic growth, and local businesses thrived. Wealthy New Yorkers such as Cornelius Vanderbilt and railroad magnate Jim Fiske built shore side mansions. Astral Oil, founded by the Pratt family, which later became part of Standard Oil, was based here. Charles Pratt and his family founded Pratt Institute, the great school of art & architecture. Corning Glass Works was founded here before moving upstate to Corning, New York. Chemist Charles Pfizer founded Pfizer Pharmaceutical in Williamsburgh, and the company still maintains its headquarters in the neighborhood. Brooklyn's Broadway street, ending in the ferry to Manhattan, became the area's lifeline. At one point in the 19th century Williamsburg possessed 10% of the wealth of the United States and was the engine of American growth.

The Kings County Savings Institution was charted on April 10, 1860. It carried in business in a building called Washington Hall until, it purchased the lot on the corner of Bedford Avenue and erected its permanent home, the Kings County Savings Bank building. This was the bank used by the wealthiest men in America. It remains to this day probably the most historically important landmark in Williamsburg, representing a time of conspicuous wealth and the industrial and financial strength of the American phenomenon.

1.3 Crossing Boroughs

In 1898 Brooklyn itself became one of five boroughs within the City of Greater New York, and its Williamsburg neighborhood was opened to closer connections with the rest of the new city.

Just five years later, the opening of the Williamsburg Bridge in 1903 marked the real turning point in the area’s history. The community was then opened up to thousands of upwardly mobile immigrants and second-generation Americans fleeing the overcrowded slum tenements of Manhattan's Lower East Side. Williamsburg itself soon became the most densely populated neighborhood in the United States.

After World War II, the economy sagged. Refugees from war-torn Europe began to stream into Brooklyn, including the Hasidim whose populations had been devastated in the Holocaust. Hispanics from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic also began to settle in Williamsburg. But with he decline of industry and the increase of population and poverty, crime and illegal drugs, Williamsburg became a caldron of pent-up energies. Those who were able to move out did.

Since the 1980s a flood of artists out of areas like SoHo began to move into Williamsburg for cheap rent and convenient transportation, one subway stop from Manhattan. The community was small at first, but by 1996 Williamsburg had accumulated an artist population of about 3,000. Visitors from around the world started coming to see the new “cutting edge” art scene.

Yuko Nii founded the nonprofit Williamsburg Art & Historical Center(WAH Center) * http://www.wahcenter.org/center/about.html in late 1996 based upon her Bridge Concept. That concept envisions a multifaceted, multicultural art center whose mission is to coalesce the diverse artistic communities, and create a bridge between local, national and international artists, emerging as well as established artists of all disciplines. She also wanted to preserve the WAH Centers building the Kings County Savings Bank building which is on the National Register of Historic Places and the 7th building to be landmarked in New York City.

The WAH Center’s activities began to attract worldwide attention and drew more artists as well as real estate investors. New restaurants & shops opened to accommodate tourists and new residents. To promote the neighborhood and its growth, Breuk Iversen started the full color glossy magazine 11211 Magazine and founded the North Brooklyn Business Association.. Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden named Yuko Nii a woman of the year in 2001 and said that her activities had transformed all the Northern part of Brooklyn.

By 2004 the community had over 70 art galleries, a museum, hundreds of trendy international restaurants, bars, and nightclubs. Today, Williamsburg is the largest art community in the world with over 10,000 artists, many coming from overseas.

2 Music Scene

In recent years, Williamsburg has become a rival to Manhattan clubs for live music and new bands. Venues like North 6 , Galapagos, Warsaw, Union Pool , Royal Oak, Free 103.9 are host to some of NYC's most important. Many roving warehouse parties have become cultural institutions of themselves for the performing arts in Brooklyn, including Mighty Robot and Rubulad .

The neighborhood also has the dubious distinction of being the birthplace of electroclash, a genre fostered by New York celebrity Larry Tee (he even copyrighted the word). For two years, the club Luxx (now Trash) hosted lofi electronic performers like W.I.T. , Avenue D, Misty Martinez and Stalker7 . Then the fad dried up, and Larry Tee discontinued his Williamsburg music nights.

3 Rents

Low rents were a major reason why artists first started settling in the area, but that situation is changing. Rents in Williamsburg range from approximately $1,000 for a studio, $1,200-1,500 for a one-bedroom, and $1,600-2,000 for a two-bedroom. The North Side (above Grand Street, which separates the North Side from the South Side) is more expensive, as it is closer to the subway (the L line), but the South Side is now becoming quite gentrified as well, making rents similarly high there. Higher rents have driven some lesser established artists to found new communities in DUMBO, and even Red Hook.

4 See also

• List of Brooklyn, New York neighborhoods

Brooklyn neighborhoods

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