Eighth Avenue is a major street in

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 ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. It was formerly an enclave for

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

s and Norwegian-Americans, who have recently become a minority in the area among the current residents, which include new immigrant colonies, among them Chinese and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

-speaking peoples. Parts of it have been colloquially re-christened '' Little Hong Kong'' in recognition of these newer communities. The avenue starts at its north at

Grand Army Plaza Grand Army Plaza, originally known as Prospect Park Plaza, is a public plaza that comprises the northern corner and the main entrance of Prospect Park in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It consists of concentric oval rings arranged as s ...

, going through

Park Slope Park Slope is a neighborhood in northwestern Brooklyn, New York City, within the area once known as South Brooklyn. Park Slope is roughly bounded by Prospect Park and Prospect Park West to the east, Fourth Avenue to the west, Flatbush A ...

for . It is interrupted by the

Green-Wood Cemetery Green-Wood Cemetery is a cemetery in the western portion of Brooklyn, New York City. The cemetery is located between South Slope/ Greenwood Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, Kensington, and Sunset Park, and lies several blo ...

between 20th and 39th Streets, and after traveling nearly further south through Sunset Park, finally ends at 73rd Street in

Bay Ridge Bay Ridge is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by Sunset Park to the north, Dyker Heights to the east, the Narrows and the Belt Parkway to the west, and Fort Hamilton Army Base an ...

Lapskaus Boulevard

''Lapskaus Boulevard'' is the nickname of part of Eighth Avenue, in a historically

working-class section of bordering

, and Sunset Park. In the earlier part of the 20th century, the part of Eighth Avenue in Sunset Park was primarily home to

immigrants, and it was known as "Little Norway", or Lapskaus Boulevard as the Norwegians termed it. The name Lapskaus was derived from a

Northern European The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe Northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54°N, or may be based on other geographical factors ...

stew that was a staple food of lower to middle income families. In Norway, lapskaus most often refers to a variation of beef stew. This dish may be called "brun lapskaus" stew made with gravy, "lys lapskaus" stew made with vegetables and pork meat or "suppelapskaus" where the gravy has been substituted by a light beef stock. While the New York City metropolitan area had a Norwegian presence for more than 300 years, immigration to Bay Ridge began to seriously take shape in the 1920s. Nordic heritage is still apparent in some sections of the neighborhood. There is an annual Syttende Mai Parade, celebrated in honor of

Norwegian Constitution Day Constitution Day is the national day of Norway and is an official public holiday observed on 17 May each year. Among Norwegians, the day is referred to as ''Syttende Mai'' ("Seventeenth of May"), ''Nasjonaldagen'' ("National Day"), or ''Grunnlo ...

. The parade features hundreds of people in folk dress who march along Fifth Avenue. The parade ends with the crowning of ''Miss Norway'' near the statue of

Leif Ericson Leif Erikson, Leiv Eiriksson, or Leif Ericson, ; Modern Icelandic: ; Norwegian: ''Leiv Eiriksson'' also known as Leif the Lucky (), was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to have set foot on continental Nort ...

. The monument was donated in 1939 by Crown Prince Olav, and features a replica of a

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

rune stone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones d ...

located in

Tune, Norway Tune is a former municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The former municipality originally covered the current Sarpsborg municipality with the exception of Skjeberg and with the addition of Rolvsøy. History The parish of Tune was establishe ...

. The stone stands on Leif Ericson Square just east of Fourth Avenue.

Chinese community

In 1983, the first Chinese-American grocery store in Brooklyn, called ''Choi Yung Grocery'', was opened on 5517 Fort Hamilton Parkway Selling both Asian and American products. In 1985, the first Cantonese style seafood restaurant opened on 8th avenue in between 55th and 56th street, called ''Canton house restaurant''. In 1986, ''Winley Supermarket'' was opened on the corner of 8th Avenue. These unprecedented supermarkets and restaurants served the predominantly local residents of the area and attracted Chinese immigrants from all areas of Brooklyn. In 1988, the first Chinese Community nonprofit organization opened on Eighth Avenue to serving Sunset park area Chinese immigrants, called the '' Brooklyn Chinese American Association'' (BCA). Before 1984, there were only about thirty small shops on the entire Eighth Avenue and 90% of the original storefronts on Eighth Avenue in Sunset Park were abandoned. From 1984 to the present, Eighth Avenue has developed from a declining commercial area to a small businesses hub with economic development potential.

Transportation

The Eighth Avenue subway station on the serves the avenue at 62nd Street, as does the

station of the at the eponymous plaza it serves. Also serving the avenue along significant portions of its length is the bus.

References

External links

Lapskaus Boulevard Walking Tour
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080916154055/http://scandinavian-museum.org/about.htm Scandinavian East Coast Museumbr> 5900 Block of Eighth Avenue
*08 History of immigration to the United States Cultural history of New York City Culture of Brooklyn Norwegian migration to North America Norwegian-American culture in New York (state) Ethnic enclaves in New York (state) Chinatowns in New York City

Lapskaus Boulevard

Chinese community

Transportation

See also

References

Further reading

External links