1873

In this 1873 Beers Atlas, we see Sheepshead Bay in its original incarnation, as an Atlantic Ocean inlet and original western source of Coney Island Creek...which originally made Coney Island, seen at bottom left, a a true island. Hog Creek and Cedar Creek, at right, have been filled in, while Shell Bank Creek has been straightened and is now a prime area for pleasure and fishing boats belonging to residents of the present Gerritsen Beach community. At far right, we see Plum Island, which was connected to the mainland by fill when the Belt Parkway was built in the 1930s. Somewhere along the way, it acquired a "b" and is he source of today's Plumb 1st, 2nd and 3rd Streets.

In 1873 only a few roads had been built here, many of which likely followed Canarsee Indian traces: at top, Gravesend Neck Road (as we see on the map Gravesend Neck was the swampy eastern section of the town of Gravesend), Sheepshead Bay Road (still a busy road in the area), East 23rd (originally a path to the shoreline) Jerome Avenue (which is now severely truncated) and Emmers Lane (now visible only to sharp-eyed urban spelunkers in its guises as diagionally-shaped driveways serving houses on side streets). Ocean Avenue, a major north-south route, was brand-new in 1873.

Property owners include names still seen on area street maps: Stryker, Applegate, and Voorhies.

Beginning in 1877, magnate Austin Corbin would dramatically change Sheepshead Bay, building the magnificent Manhattan Beach and Oriental Hotels, extending a railroad south to serve them, and later filling in what was the eastern end of Coney Island to produce what was originally the exclusive residential Manhattan Beach neighborhood. Bungalows would be built on streets laid out over what was originally cattail-filled swamps. Map from Brooklyn Genealogy

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