Mill Basin, Brooklyn
Mill Basin is a residential neighborhood in southeastern Brooklyn, New York City. It is on a peninsula abutting Jamaica Bay and is bordered by Avenue U on the northwest and the Mill Basin/Mill Island Inlet on its remaining sides. Mill Basin is adjacent to the neighborhood of Bergen Beach to the northeast, Flatlands to the northwest, Marine Park to the southwest, and Floyd Bennett Field and the former Barren Island to the southeast. Mill Basin also contains a subsection called Old Mill Basin, north of Avenue U.
Mill Basin was originally Mill Island, Jamaica Bay. In the 17th century, a mill was built on Mill, Bergen, and Barren Islands. The archipelago was then occupied by the Schenck and Crooke families through the late 19th century, and remained a mostly rural area with oyster fishing. After Robert Crooke developed a smelting plant on Mill Island in 1890, industrial customers started developing the island and connected it to the rest of Brooklyn. In an effort to develop Mill Basin as a seaport district, ports and dry docks were built in the early 20th century, though a lack of railroad connections hindered the area's further growth. Residential development began in the late 1940s, along with the rest of southeast Brooklyn, though some of the former industrial buildings remain.
Mill Basin is primarily residential, with a mix of commercial and industrial uses, including the Kings Plaza shopping mall in its western part. The area around Mill Basin consists of a mostly white population as of the 2010 United States census, and is sparsely served by public transportation. Nearby recreational areas include Floyd Bennett Field, the first municipal airport in New York City, which is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area and is just southeast of Mill Basin.
Mill Basin is part of Brooklyn Community District 18, and its primary ZIP Code is 11234. It is patrolled by the 63rd Precinct of the New York City Police Department.
Geography
Originally, Mill Basin was an island in Jamaica Bay off the coast of Canarsie, called Mill Island. Most of the island was composed of low-lying meadows near sea level, but a very small part of it was arable uplands, or hilly areas above sea level. The area's original geography was vastly different from the modern geography.A bulkhead was built along Mill Island's shore in the late 1890s. It was later connected to the uplands of nearby Bergen Beach, creating the continuous embankment between Mill and Paerdegat basins later used for the construction of the Belt Parkway. Most of the earliest filling operations along the island were private; the city government took over later. Some parts of Mill Basin remained a wetland until the late 20th century. A stream ran where Avenue U is today, dividing Mill Island from the mainland. Maps show that Mill Island was connected to the mainland by 1926, but modern city maps still allude to "Mill Island".
The New York Times described the neighborhood as a "mitten-shaped peninsula" enclosed to the south, west, and east by the eponymous waterway. Mill Basin is zoned as a predominantly residential neighborhood with one- or two-family residences. Small commercial overlays and recreational waterfront uses also exist, and the area between Avenue U and the Mill Basin waterway is zoned for heavy industry. Old Mill Basin is north of Avenue U. According to a map The New York Times published in 2009, Old Mill Basin can be considered to reach as far north as Avenue N.
History
Early settlement
The local Lenape Native Americans originally inhabited the area. They referred to the surrounding area, including Mill and Barren Islands, as "Equendito" or "Equindito", a name that probably means "Broken Lands". In 1624, the Dutch Republic incorporated much of the current New York City area into the colony of New Netherland. In 1636, as Dutch settlers expanded outward from present-day Manhattan, they founded the town of Achtervelt and purchased around Jamaica Bay. Amersfoort was centered around the present-day intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Flatlands Avenue. Canarsie Indian leaders signed three land agreements with Dutch settlers between 1636 and 1667, ceding much of their historic land, including Mill Island. Mill Island, as well as the nearby Barren Island, was sold to John Tilton Jr. and Samuel Spicer in 1664. At some point in the 1660s or 1670s, a settler named Elbert Elbertse leased Mill Island, along with Bergen and Barren Islands.The land was owned from 1675 by Jans Martense Schenck, who built a house on the land believed to be one of the oldest houses in New York City. Schenck also built a pier so he could load and unload cargo to or from the Netherlands. A tide mill had been built on the land by that time, but the exact date of the mill's construction is not known; sources give dates between 1660 and 1675. One of Schenck's relatives, a ship captain named Hendrick, allegedly formed an alliance with the pirate William Kidd and allowed Kidd to bury treasure on Mill Island.
When Schenck died in 1689, his son Martin received ownership of the estate; the mill was later inherited by Nicholas Schenck. In 1784, the property was sold to Joris Martense of Flatbush. Martense also received " of uplands, of woodlands, and a parcel of salt-meadows" in the transaction, as noted in a 1909 history of Brooklyn. By 1794, John Schenck was renting the property from Joris's widow. At the time, the mill was called "the mill of Martensen".
The property, which included the mill, farm, and house, was later conveyed to Susan Caton, the daughter of Joris Martense. Caton named Robert L. Crooke as the trustee for Caton's daughter, Margaret Crooke, who was married to General Philip S. Crooke. In 1818, Margaret Crooke inherited the land. After this conveyance, the mill was called "Crooke's Mill". General Crooke was the trustee for the Crooke children, and upon Margaret's death, had the power to pass the property down to their children. In 1870, after Margaret died, he conveyed the property to Robert, who gave the property back in 1873. Over the next 30 years, there were a dozen more land conveyances and by 1906, Robert Crooke owned the property again.
The name "Mill Island" is believed to have been first used in the late 19th century. Before then, settlers called it "the mill" because of the gristmill there.
Industrial development
Up to the late 19th century, the area retained its rural character, and the only structures on the island were a house and "three stable" buildings. The chief resources were the abundant crabs, oysters, and clams in Jamaica Bay. In 1890, Robert Crooke built a lead-smelting plant on Mill Island. The Crooke Smelting Company was bought out by the National Lead Company, and Robert sold the remainder of the land to the firm of McNulty and Fitzgerald, which erected bulkheads and filled in the marshes. By 1906, Mill Island reportedly received of ore annually. The island's factories had a combined annual output of of metals whose aggregate value was $1.25 million. Boats delivered and received shipments via the nearby waterways.Crooke sold the former mill to Florence C. Smith in January 1906. The day after the sale, Smith deeded it to the real estate company Flatbush East, who transferred the land's ownership to Flatbush Improvement Company at the end of the year. The Flatbush Improvement Company brought marshland and engaged the firm of Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific to dredge creeks and fill in meadows. After the filling project was completed, the parcel had an area of and was fit for industrial development. As compensation, Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific acquired ownership of the eastern portion of Mill Island, which comprised about of land. Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific built factories and worker housing on its half of the island, and in 1916, began laying sidewalks and utilities. The expanded island attracted companies such as National Lead, Gulf Refining, and other leading firms engaged in heavy industry, which were operating plants along the Mill Island shoreline. Additionally, construction of an extension of Flatbush Avenue to the Rockaway Inlet started in 1913.
In 1910, developers began dredging ports within Jamaica Bay in an effort to develop a seaport district there. Work on dredging a, main ship channel started in 1912 and was completed the next year, but lawsuits delayed progress until the 1920s. The channel ran along the western and northern shores of Jamaica Bay. The first improvements to Mill Island itself started in 1915, when a wooden pier was installed along Flatbush Avenue. In 1916, of shoreline along Mill Island was incorporated into the proposed port. At the time, a, channel was to be excavated within Mill Basin, the waterway. This new channel would allow a proposed extension of the Flatbush Avenue Streetcar from Avenue N to the Mill Basin shoreline. In 1917 the New York City Department of Docks awarded a contract to dredge the Mill Basin channel, along the southern and western sides of the island, to the federal government. Mill Basin was eventually wide and deep. Work on the main ship channel restarted in 1923. After the entire main channel was dredged to 500 feet wide by 18 feet deep, it was re-dredged to 1,000 feet wide by deep. The project was completed by the late 1930s, eliminating many small islands in the bay and causing the expansion of another island, Canarsie Pol. The eastern branch of Mill Basin was created by the 1930s.
In 1918, the city allowed several large piers to be constructed within the bay, though only one was built. The pier, which was built in order to receive landfill for the other proposed piers, stretched northeast of Barren Island, south of Mill Island, and was wide. A total of six piers were planned for this area. In June of that year, a municipally owned pier was opened at Mill Basin. At the time, there were proposals to fill in between Mill and Barren Islands so 14 more piers could be built.
By 1919, Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific was building three large dry docks on Mill Island. It was also constructing seven barges for the United States Navy. The fill for the docks came from as far away as Europe. As of that year, Mill Island was the site of at least six manufacturing and commercial concerns. One observer attributed the presence of several of these factories to the proposed improvements at Jamaica Bay. A contract for building concrete piers was awarded in 1921 and completed the next year. In 1925, the Flatbush Avenue extension to Rockaway Inlet opened, providing an additional of dock facilities and a strip of land for a road across the marshes. Construction of the docks started in 1927. During the late 1920s and 1930s, the New York City Department of Docks rented the docks to a number of small industrial firms.
The development of the proposed docklands at Jamaica Bay spurred large increases in property values in Mill Basin, since the docklands was expected to gain a connection to the Long Island Rail Road. Planners wanted to create a spur of the Bay Ridge Branch south to Flatlands, with two branches to Canarsie and Mill Basin. A connection to Staten Island would be built via the planned Staten Island Tunnel, which would in turn allow freight to be delivered and shipped to the rest of the continental United States. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey offered to build the new railroad link for $2 million and lease it to the city, but Mill Basin's further development was hindered when plans for rail service to the rest of Brooklyn went unrealized. Industrial activity continued through the 1960s.
In 1927, United States Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover's "Fact-Finding Committee on Suitable Airport Facilities for the New York Metropolitan District" suggested Southeast Brooklyn as a possible site for a new municipal airport in New York City. The New York City Chamber of Commerce approved the site in September of that year. Originally, real-estate developers suggested that in Mill Basin could be used for the new airport, which would allow the airfield to open before the end of 1928. Ultimately, New York City's aeronautical engineer Clarence Chamberlin selected nearby Barren Island as the site for the new airport, which later became Floyd Bennett Field.
The Belt Parkway was built through the neighborhood in the 1930s, and it opened in 1940. The construction of a [|drawbridge along the parkway], traversing Mill Basin, was approved in 1939 and completed the next year.