The Brooklyn land on which Fort Greene and Clinton Hill sit was created more than 12,000 years ago by dirt and rock washed south by icebergs during the last ice age. Since that time, the area has withstood war, disease, and racial tension; and has led the way in diversifying New York City’s neighborhoods, urban park development, and the arts. The area’s unique nature has fostered and homed some of America’s greatest talents; including Walt Whitman, Mos Def, The Notorious B.I.G., and Richard Wright.

The Dutch started buying up parcels of land in what is now Fort Greene and Clinton Hill from Native Americans in 1636. The Belgian Joris JJjanssen de Rapelje in 1637 bought 335 acres situated on Wallabout Bay—property that would later become the Navy Yard. Ferries in the early 1800s made commuting from Brooklyn to Manhattan simplistic, which in turn led to a real estate boom in the1850s in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill that brought with it gas lighting, flush toilets, water lines, and sewers. Walt Whitman’s push in 1846 for a public park in Brooklyn yielded the following year what is today Fort Greene Park. A crypt built on the park’s northern edge houses patriot remains from the American Revolutionary War. Brooklyn’s first school for African Americans opened in Fort Greene in 1847. And by the time the Civil War began in 1861, half of Brooklyn’s blacks lived in the area. Fort Greene boasted an African American principal at P.S. 67 in 1863; and Dr. Phillip A. White became Brooklyn’s first black board of education member. Fort Greene’s 14th Infantry helped turn the tide of the Civil War under the leadership of Gen. Edward B. Fowler, whose statue still stands at Fulton Street and Lafayette Avenue.

But in spite of all these successes, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill eventually fell into disrepair. The 1950s saw unprecedented flight from the neighborhoods, after houses subdivided for Navy Yard workers during World War II were left uninhabited when jobs dissolved. Transplants to the neighborhood in the 1960s sparked an interest in allocating parts of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill as historic. Today, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill enjoy an influx of young artists flocking to the area for its proximity to Pratt and plethora of diverse and independently owned shops, restaurants, and nightlife.

Other secondary education facilities, including St. Joseph’s College in Clinton Hill and Long Island University in Fort Greene, deepen the student presence. And with close access to all major train lines, getting to lower Manhattan from Fort Greene and Clinton Hill is easier than from most neighborhoods uptown.

Go to Community History  for extended history

By Nicole Caldwell