Screen shot 2016-05-21 at 10.21.25 AMYou might wonder about the origins of the name of the street you live on. Neziah Bliss, the patriarch of Greenpoint, had the streets surveyed in the 1840’s. He named the streets starting at the Northern end in Greenpoint after the letters of the alphabet: A, B, C, etc. People didn’t love this naming system and ended up giving full names to those streets, but the alphabetical order stuck.

Ash Street was named after the ash trees that once…

Join the Conversation

39

  1. Curious to know about Green Street.
    My grandmother lived at 72 Green St for many years. My mother grew up there as well. I lived at the same address as a child.
    My grandfather and uncle were both longshoreman and worked down at the docks. 🙂

    1. I would think living in Greenpoint they named Green street in relation to the Green point, which was a spit of green land that stuck out into the East River, not far away at the end of what is today Freeman Street.

    2. Was curious about Green St too and it was so cool to find this comment! I lived at 72 Green St (#2R) for 5 years and just left last year. I miss it all the time.

    1. John and James Lorimer Graham were real estate guys who sold a lot
      of what became Williamsburg

  3. Wasnt G reenpoint also known as THE END OF THE PICKLE..I used to hear my parents whom were born and raised there as was I,call it that.

    1. I have heard that Greenpoint was once called pickletown because there were a lot of pickle plants here.

  5. I lived on Vandervoort Ave. in Greenpoint (near the tanks) for 34 years. Also before that on Beadle St. around the corner. What is origin of those names?

    1. Moses Beadle was a revolutionary war hero who died in prison. I believe that the Vandervoorts were one of the early farming families in Greenpoint.

    1. Eagle was named for the Brooklyn Eagle the newspaper of Brooklyn, but I cannot tell you about Broom.

    1. Ambrose Kingsland was a merchant who bought farmland in Greenpoint and became mayor of New York.

    1. Hi Ken,

      It was Opened in 1852, named after a noted lawyer and the first professor of Law at Columbia College and the Chancellor of The New York Court of Chancerey, James Kent (1763-1847).

  12. Thank you Geoff Cobb, I grew up in Greenpoint, (Franklin & Oak) I always knew it was Rich in History…just not to this extent…awesome.

    1. Hi Diane, Glad you liked the article. I live around the corner from where you grew up.
      You might enjoy my book about Greenpoint history Greenpoint Brooklyn’s Forgotten Past.

  13. You say that Manhattan Avenue was once Orchard Avenue. There is an original stone on a building at Ainslie Street and Manhattan Avenue that shows the strret name was once Ewen. Do you know anything about this? Thank you

    1. Calyer was one of the five Huguenot families that farmed Greenpoint. Jacobus Calyer fought in the battle of Brooklyn.

  18. Wonderful article…always interested in our street names(we live on Java St for six decades)…just want to ask…there is a sign on the corner of Kent St and Manhattan Ave that say UNION st ( ithink its street)…haven’t heard anything about that

  19. North Henry Street (Brooklyn) was just regular Henry Street in the independent town of Greenpoint. But that changed in 1855, when Greenpoint — and its neighbors Williamsburg(h) and Bushwick — were annexed into the city of Brooklyn. Dozens of old street names were changed when the annexation took place. Here’s a lengthy list of other altered names. Since the southern Henry Street was the ‘original’ Henry Street of Brooklyn, this one got a North stuck to it.

  20. Hi.
    I’m curious about Classon Avenue. don’t know if it is located in this area, though…

  22. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this Greenpoint history. My family were originally from Guernsey St. I grew up on Manhattan Ave., after marrying we lived on Guernsey then Milton St.

Leave a comment