The Stroll Continues...
A Mystery Death, Moby Dick, the Brooklyn Bridge Family, and the President of Williamsburg(h)
By Nichole Altmix
Parts of North Brooklyn’s charm are the unique names of its streets where Broadways and Main Streets don't cut it. Last month we took a stroll around Maujer, Suydam and Meserole Streets to investigate the origins of the street names, determine how to pronounce them and learn a bit of Brooklyn history. This time around we will start at Conselyea Street.
Conselyea Street (pronounced con-‘sil-ee-ay) is located in Williamsburg and runs from Union Avenue to Maspeth Street. It was named after Andrew Conselyea, who owned a vast amount of land and property in this area, including the Conselyea Farmhouse, the Conselyea Mill, and the Conselyea Orchard. A website that covers the history of Brooklyn districts and street names, www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com explains that the Dutch farmhouse was built around 1660 and stood strong until 1898 when the house was razed due to deterioration. Brooklyn Genealogy also believes that one summer day, Andrew Conselyea actually got caught in his mill wheel and was later found dead in his own pond in the mid 1850’s. Whether it was a murder or an accident still remains a mystery.
Ten Eyck Street (pronounced ten ike) was also named after a landowner in Williamsburg. According to Leonard Benardo and Jennifer Weiss, the authors of Brooklyn By Name, patriarch Coenraedt Ten Eyck left Germany in 1651 and set out for New Amsterdam, the large Dutch settlement, which eventually became New York City. Bernardo and Weiss illustrate that the newly revitalized “Coenties Slip in Manhattan comes from a contraction of his own name and that of his second wife, Antje.” According to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, this maritime historic slip “was once the berth of sailing vessels” on the tip of Manhattan and was even mentioned on the first page of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. The Ten Eyck family was “among the prominent inhabitants of Williamsburg and on November 29, 1869 Wyckoff Street in Williamsburg was renamed Ten Eyck Street,” describes the website for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
Roebling Street in Williamsburg (pronounced ‘row-bling) runs all the way from Division Avenue to McCarren Park. It was named after Prussian engineer John Augustus Roebling, to whom we now credit the beauty of the Brooklyn Bridge. Unfortunately, “Roebling suffered a fatal accident and his son, Washington Roebling, took over the project” of construction, claim Benardo and Weiss. When Washington Roebling caught caisson disease, Emily Roebling, his wife, “taught herself civil engineering [and] carried forth the on-site supervision until opening day in 1883.” It was because of three Roeblings that all can enjoy the views from this massive bridge.
The last stop on this stroll is Driggs Avenue. A well-traveled street in Brooklyn, it runs from Division Street through all of Williamsburg and Greenpoint, ending on Meeker Avenue just before Hausman Street. The avenue was named after Edmund Driggs, the last president of the Village of Williamsburgh, which dropped “village” and the “h” in 1831. According to Brooklyn Genealogy, this politician was also the first president of the Williamsburg City Fire Insurance Company. Bernard and Weiss describe that Edmund Driggs “was also a First Ward Alderman...and a delegate to the 1860 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that nominated Stephen Douglas.”
To learn more about the unique (and hard to pronounce) street names in North Brooklyn, be sure to check out Part III of Blocks By Block in the upcoming issue. Whipple, Java and Keap Streets up ahead!
