CYPRESS HILLS PROJECT PACKET Name: ________________________________________________________________ © Brooklyn Connections – Brooklyn Public Library 1 NOTES: _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ © Brooklyn Connections – Brooklyn Public Library 2 INTRODUCTORY READING: Manbeck, John and Kenneth T. Jackson. Neighborhoods of Brooklyn. New York: Yale University Press, 2004. Print. Adaptation Cypress Hills was settled in the early 1700s as a part of New Lots of the town of Flatbush. African American slaves farmed the area for Dutch, French, Huguenot, and English landowners, and the community remained rural until the 1800s. One of the first signs of development was the construction of the Jamaica Plank Road (1807), a wooden structure along what is now Jamaica Avenue: two of the road’s toll gates were within today’s Cypress Hills. Fulton Street was also laid out in the early 1800s. When Union Course racetrack was constructed in 1821, just over the county line in Queens, settlement spread to Brooklyn. A community called Union Place, with roadhouses, blacksmiths, retail shops, and hotels, sprang up to meet the demand of the gamblers, sightseers, and new residents. By 1835, John Pitkin, a merchant from Connecticut, was developing farms in an attempt to build a manufacturing city that he named East New York. The Long Island Railroad has also begun to serve the area with a line called the Great Eastern Railroad, on tracks that, although nearly inaccessible today, still exist under Atlantic Avenue. These tracks were once elevated west of Warwick Street. As reaching Cypress Hills via public transportation became easy, residents were attracted to the area. In 1852 the town of New Lots, which encompassed Cypress Hills, was incorporated. The New Lots Town Hall, built in 1873, still stands on Bradford Street, although it has sense become an apartment building. In the mid-1800s, cemeteries north of the neighborhood, including the federal Cypress Hills Cemetery (1848), were planned and developed. It is not certain whether the neighborhood takes its name from this cemetery; possibly both were named for the trees that grew on the local hills. Eighteen cemeteries were eventually developed around and within Cypress Hills. In 1886 the City of Brooklyn annexed the town of New Lots, including what is now Cypress Hills. By the early 1920s, almost every block of the neighborhood was filled with houses, and by the mid-1920s apartments were even being constructed above Fulton Street stores. The population has changed grown with the neighborhood. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Cypress Hills was inhabited primarily by Americans of German, Irish, Italian, and Polish descent. This ethnic mix remained primarily the same until the middle of the twentieth century, when African Americans, Central Americans, and South Americans moved to Cypress Hills. Today, Haitian, Jamaican, Indian, Pakistani, Korean, and Chinese residents also call Cypress Hills home. © Brooklyn Connections – Brooklyn Public Library 3 DOCUMENT 1: Print. Toll Gate. 1848. Print. Brooklyn Collection, Brooklyn Public Library, © Brooklyn Connections – Brooklyn Public Library 4 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 1. Describe the scene in DOCUMENT 1. 2. The tile of this image is Toll Gate, meaning the structure in the back of the image was where people would pay money to take the Jamaica Plank Road (now Jamaica Avenue). What type of people do you think took this road? 3. What was the area along the road like in the mid-1800s? 4. What do you think is in the barrel in the image? © Brooklyn Connections – Brooklyn Public Library 5 DOCUMENT 2: Print. “Decoration of the Graves of Union Soldiers at Cypress Hills Cemetery.” Harper’s Weekly 30 May 1869. Print. Brooklyn Collection, Brooklyn Public Library. © Brooklyn Connections – Brooklyn Public Library 6 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 1. How was this image created? 2. Describe the scene depicted in the image in detail. Use the caption at the bottom of the image for clues as to what is happening. 3. Cypress Hills Cemetery opened in 1848 and was recognized as one of New York’s most bucolic cemeteries, the land specifically chosen for its beauty. Do you think the opening of the cemetery affected the new stores that opened around it? Why or why not? 4. Why do you think Cypress Hills Cemetery was chosen for the depicted event? © Brooklyn Connections – Brooklyn Public Library 7 DOCUMENT 3: Atlas. F.W. Beers. Atlas of Long Island, New York. NY: F.W. Beers and Co., 1873. Print. © Brooklyn Connections – Brooklyn Public Library 8 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 1. The Union Race Course was a horse racing track situated between what is now 75th and 80th Streets in Cypress Hills. When did it open and what type of businesses did it attract? (Refer to your introductory reading for help.) 2. Why do you think the race course was built so far outside of town? 3. The village of Unionville, later to become the base for Cypress Hills, developed alongside the track. Why do we not call Cypress Hills ‘Unionville’ today? 4. What are three questions you still have about Unionville or the Union Course Track. © Brooklyn Connections – Brooklyn Public Library 9 DOCUMENT 4a & 4b: Articles. “Another New Library.” Brooklyn Daily Eagle 17 Oct 1906. Print. Arlington Branch. 1906. Print. Brooklyn Collection, Brooklyn Public Library. © Brooklyn Connections – Brooklyn Public Library 10 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 1. Today people refer to this branch of the Brooklyn Public Library as the Arlington Branch. What was it originally called? 2. Who was asked to speak at the opening ceremony? Why do you think those people were asked to speak/attend? 3. The money for the Arlington Branch was donated by a wealthy philanthropist named Andrew Carnegie. In total, Carnegie allowed NYC to build 67 libraries and helped build over 1,700 libraries nationwide. Why