Wallabout, Brooklyn
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Wallabout is a neighborhood in the
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...
of
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
that dates back to the 17th century. It is one of the oldest areas of Brooklyn, in the area that was once
Wallabout Bay Wallabout Bay is a small body of water in Upper New York Bay along the northwest shore of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, between the present Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges. It is located opposite Corlear's Hook in Manhattan, acros ...
but has largely been filled in and is now the
Brooklyn Navy Yard The Brooklyn Navy Yard (originally known as the New York Navy Yard) is a shipyard and industrial complex located in northwest Brooklyn in New York City, New York. The Navy Yard is located on the East River in Wallabout Bay, a semicircular bend ...
. The name Wallabout comes from the 17th century, when a group of Walloons, French-speaking Protestants from what is now Belgium, settled along the nearby bay. They called it “Waal-bogt,” or “bend in the harbor.” It is a mixed use area with an array of old wood-frame buildings, public housing, brick townhouses and warehouses. It is bounded by Navy Street to the west, the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Flushing Avenue to the north,
Myrtle Avenue Myrtle Avenue is a street that runs from Duffield Street in Downtown Brooklyn to Jamaica Avenue in Richmond Hill, Queens, in New York City, United States. Route description Queens Myrtle Avenue has been a major thoroughfare since the early ...
to the south and Marcy Avenue to the east. In the early 1800s, however, Wallabout was just a village inside of the town of Brooklyn. The Brooklyn we know today was divided up into six towns: Brooklyn, Gravesend, Flatlands, Flatbush, New Utrect, and Bushwick. Wallabout was one of the villages in the town of Brooklyn, bordering other villages in Brooklyn, like Bedford and Gowanus. But over time as Brooklyn became more industrialized, the borders shrank, and Wallabout was fitted just outside the
Brooklyn Navy Yard The Brooklyn Navy Yard (originally known as the New York Navy Yard) is a shipyard and industrial complex located in northwest Brooklyn in New York City, New York. The Navy Yard is located on the East River in Wallabout Bay, a semicircular bend ...
. The
Lefferts-Laidlaw House The Lefferts-Laidlaw House is a historic villa located in the Wallabout neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City, United States. Built around 1840, the house is a two-story frame building in the temple-fronted Greek Revival style. History The ...
was built about 1840 and added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1985. The
Wallabout Historic District Wallabout Historic District is a national historic district located in the Wallabout neighborhood of Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. The district encompasses 203 contributing buildings in a mixed residential and commercial / industrial secti ...
was added in 2011 and the
Wallabout Industrial Historic District Wallabout Industrial Historic District is a national historic district located in the Wallabout neighborhood of Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. The district encompasses 43 contributing buildings and 3 contributing sites in an industrial secti ...
in 2012. Wallabout includes four public housing projects: The Marcy Houses, The Raymond V. Ingersoll Houses, the
Walt Whitman Houses The Walt Whitman Houses are a housing project in Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York completed on February 24, 1944. The project consists of fifteen buildings, 6 and 13-stories tall with 1,659 apartment units. It covers a 18.44-acre ...
and the
Farragut Houses The Farragut Houses is a public housing project located in the downtown neighborhood of northwestern Brooklyn, New York City, bordering the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Farragut Houses is a property of New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). The houses ...
. The neighborhood's name is rarely used anymore, being split into
Fort Greene Fort Greene is a neighborhood in the northwestern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Flushing Avenue and the Brooklyn Navy Yard to the north, Flatbush Avenue Extension and Downtown Brooklyn to the wes ...
, Clinton Hill, and Bedford Stuyvesant. Wallabout was originally inhabited by the
Brooklyn Navy Yard The Brooklyn Navy Yard (originally known as the New York Navy Yard) is a shipyard and industrial complex located in northwest Brooklyn in New York City, New York. The Navy Yard is located on the East River in Wallabout Bay, a semicircular bend ...
workers. Many of the historic row houses were built by the navy yard workers as well.


References

Neighborhoods in Brooklyn Brooklyn Navy Yard {{NYC-stub