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As of the 2020 United States census, the county's population was 1,525,920,[1] its highest decennial count ever, making Suffolk the fourth-most populous county in the State of New York, and the most populous outside of the boroughs of New York City. Its county seat is Riverhead,[2] though most county offices are in Hauppauge.[3] The county was named after the county of Suffolk in England, the origin of its earliest European settlers.
Suffolk County incorporates the easternmost extreme of both the New York City metropolitan area and New York State. The geographically largest of Long Island's four counties and the second-largest of New York's 62 counties, Suffolk County is 86 miles (138 km) in length and 26 miles (42 km) in width at its widest (including water).[4] Most of the island is near sea level, with over 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) of coastline.[5]
Suffolk County was part of the Connecticut Colony before becoming an original county of the Province of New York, one of twelve created in 1683. From 1664 until 1683, it had been the East Riding of Yorkshire. Its boundaries were essentially the same as at present, with only minor changes in the boundary with its western neighbor, which was originally Queens County but has been Nassau County since the separation of Nassau from Queens in 1899.
According to the Suffolk County website, the county is the leading agricultural county in the state of New York, saying that: "The weather is temperate, clean water is abundant, and the soil is so good that Suffolk is the leading agricultural county in New York State. That Suffolk is still number one in farming, even with the development that has taken place, is a tribute to thoughtful planning, along with the excellent soil, favorable weather conditions, and the work of the dedicated farmers in this region."[8]
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 2,373 square miles (6,150 km2), of which 912 square miles (2,360 km2) is land and 1,461 square miles (3,780 km2) (62%) is water.[9] It is the second-largest county in New York by total area and occupies 66% of the land area of Long Island.
Suffolk County occupies the central and eastern part of Long Island, in the extreme east of the State of New York. The eastern end of the county splits into two peninsulas, known as the North Fork and the South Fork. The county is surrounded by water on three sides, including the Atlantic Ocean and Long Island Sound, with 980 miles (1,580 km) of coastline. The eastern end contains large bays.
The highest elevation in the county, and on Long Island as a whole, is Jayne's Hill in West Hills, at 401 feet (122 m) above sea level. This low lying-geography means that much of the county is vulnerable to sea level rise.[5]
Sign referring to Suffolk County's 1683 founding located in Peterkin Park on Oak Street in Amityville.
Suffolk County sits at the convergence of climate zones including the humid continental (Dfa) and humid subtropical (Cfa), bordering closely on an oceanic climate (Cfb). The majority of the county by land area is in the Dfa zone. Summers are cooler at the east end than in the western part of the county. The hardiness zone is 7a, except in Copiague Harbor, Lindenhurst, and Montauk, where it is 7b. Average monthly temperatures in Hauppauge range from 31.0 °F (−0.6 °C) in January to 74.0 °F (23.3 °C) in July, and in the Riverhead town center they range from 30.1 °F (−1.1 °C) in January to 72.8 °F (22.7 °C) in July, which includes both daytime and nighttime temperatures. On February 9, 2013, Suffolk County was besieged with 30 inches of snow, making it the largest day of snowfall on record in Suffolk.[10]
Climate data for Montauk, New York (1981–2010 normals)
Suffolk County, New York – Racial and ethnic composition Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
According to the 2010 U.S. census[25] there were 1,493,350 people and 569,985 households residing in the county. The census estimated Suffolk County's population decreased slightly to 1,481,093 in 2018, representing 7.5% of the census-estimated New York State population of 19,745,289[26] and 19.0% of the census-estimated Long Island population of 7,869,820.[27][28][29][30] The population density in 2010 was 1,637 people per square mile (632 people/km2), with 569,985 households at an average density of 625 per square mile (241/km2). However, by 2012, with an estimated total population increasing moderately to 1,499,273 there were 569,359 housing units.[31] As of 2006, Suffolk County was the 21st-most populous county in the United States.[32]
By 2014, the county's racial makeup was estimated at 85.2% White, 8.3% African American, 0.6% Native American, 4.0% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, and 1.8% from two or more races. Those identifying as Hispanic or Latino, of any race, were 18.2% of the population. Those who identified as "white alone", not being of Hispanic or Latino origin, represented 69.3% of the population.[33] In 2006, the county's racial or ethnic makeup was 83.6% White (75.4% White Non-Hispanic). African Americans were 7.4% of the population. Asians stood at 3.4% of the population. 5.4% were of other or mixed race. Latinos were 13.0% of the population.[34] In 2007, Suffolk County's most common ethnicities were Italian (29.5%), Irish (24.0%), and German (17.6%).[35]
In 2002, The New York Times cited a study by the non-profit group ERASE Racism, which determined Suffolk and its neighboring county, Nassau, to be the most racially segregated suburbs in the United States.[36]
In 2006, there were 469,299 households, of which 37.00% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.00% were married couples living together, 10.80% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.20% were non-families. 18.30% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.96 and the average family size was 3.36.
In the county, the population was spread out, with 26.10% under the age of 18, 7.60% from 18 to 24, 31.20% from 25 to 44, 23.30% from 45 to 64, and 11.80% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.80 males.
In 2008, Forbes magazine released its American Community Survey and named Suffolk County number 4 in its list of the top 25 richest counties in America. In 2016, according to Business Insider, the 11962 zip code encompassing Sagaponack, within Southampton, was listed as the most expensive in the U.S., with a median home sale price of $8.5 million.[37]
The median income for a household in the county was $84,767,[38] and the median income for a family was $72,112. Males had a median income of $50,046 versus $33,281 for females. The per capita income for the county was $26,577. Using a weighted average from 2009 to 2014 about 6.40% of the population were below the poverty line[33] In earlier censuses, the population below the poverty line included 2.70% of those under age 18 and 2.30% of those age 65 or over.
Racial groups, ethnicity, and religious groups on Long Island
compared to state and nation
Source for Race and Ethnicity: 2010 Census[39]
American Indian, Native Alaskan, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander make up just 0.5% of the population of Long Island, and have been included with "Other".
In 2003, Democrat Steve Levy was elected county executive, ending longtime Republican control. In 2001, Democrat Thomas Spota was elected District Attorney, and ran unopposed in 2005. Although Suffolk voters gave George H. W. Bush a victory here in 1992, the county voted for Bill Clinton in 1996 and continued the trend by giving Al Gore an 11-percent victory in the county in 2000. 2004 Democratic candidate John Kerry won by a much smaller margin of under one percent, in 2008 Democratic candidate Barack Obama won by a slightly larger 6 percent margin, 52.5%-46.5%. In 2012, he carried the county by a slightly smaller margin 51%-47%. In 2016, Republican candidate Donald Trump won Suffolk County by a 6.9 percent margin, becoming the first Republican to carry the county since 1992. In 2020, Trump again won Suffolk County; this time, however, it was decided by just 232 votes out of nearly 800,000 votes cast, making it the closest county in the nation in terms of percentage margin, and representing nearly a seven-point swing towards the Democratic ticket of former Vice President Joe Biden and junior California senator Kamala Harris. In percentage terms, it was the closest county in the state, although Ontario County and Warren County had narrower raw vote margins of just 33 and 57 votes, respectively. Suffolk was one of five counties in the state that Trump won by less than 500 votes. With Tarrant County, Texas and Maricopa County, Arizona flipping Democratic in 2020, Suffolk County was the most populous county in the nation to vote for Trump in 2020. In 2024, Trump won 54% of the vote in Suffolk county, the highest percentage since 1988.
As a whole, both Suffolk and Nassau counties are considered swing counties. However, until 2016, they tended not to receive significant attention from presidential candidates, as the state of New York has turned reliably Democratic at the national level. In 2008 and 2012, Hofstra University in Nassau County hosted a presidential debate. Hofstra hosted the first debate of the 2016 presidential election season, on September 26, 2016, making Hofstra the first college or university in the United States to host a presidential debate in three consecutive elections. The presence on the 2016 ticket of Westchester County resident Hillary Clinton and Manhattan resident Donald Trump resulted in greater attention by the candidates to the concerns of Long Island. Trump visited Long Island voters and donors at least four times while Clinton made one stop for voters and one additional stop in the Hamptons for donors.
After the 2022 midterm election results were counted, Suffolk appears to have moved further to the right. Republican gubernatorial candidate and Suffolk County native Lee Zeldin won the county by more than 17 points over the Democratic candidate Kathy Hochul.[44] Republicans, as of 2024, hold both congressional districts covering that being New York's 1st congressional district represented by Nick LaLota and New York's 2nd congressional district represented by Andrew Garbarino.
The 2023 election saw this trend continue, with Republican Edward P. Romaine defeating Democrat David Calone by 14 points to become the next County Executive.[45] Republicans also gained a 12-6 supermajority in the County Legislature, seeing a net gain of one seat.
Republicans controlled the county legislature until a landmark election in November 2005 where three Republican seats switched to the Democrats, giving them control. In November 2007, the Democratic Party once again retained control over the Suffolk County Legislature, picking up one seat in the process. In November 2009, the Republican Party regained the seat lost in 2007 but remained in the minority for the 2010-2011 session. In November 2011, the Democratic Party maintained control over the Suffolk County Legislature picking up one seat that had been held by an Independence Party member. In November 2013, the Republican Party gained the 14th district seat, but remained in the minority until 2021, when the GOP flipped the county legislature, picking up three seats with incumbents Robert Calarco (the sitting Presiding Officer) and Susan Berland (the sitting Majority Leader) losing their bids for re-election.[46][47] The Suffolk GOP built on these gains in the 2023 general election, gaining a 12-6 supermajority.
The Suffolk County Sheriff's Office is a separate agency. The sheriff, an elected official who serves a four-year term, operates the two Suffolk County correctional facilities (in Yaphank and Riverhead), provides county courthouse security and detention, service and enforcement of civil papers, evictions and warrants. The Sheriff's Office is also responsible for securing all county-owned property, such as county government office buildings, as well as the campuses of the Suffolk County Community College. As of 2008, the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office employed 275 Deputy Sheriffs, 850 corrections officers, and about 200 civilian staff.
Suffolk County has a long maritime history with several outer barrier beaches and hundreds of square miles of waterways. The Suffolk Police Marine Bureau patrols the 500 square miles (1,000 km2) of navigable waterways within the police district, from the Connecticut and Rhode Island state line which bisects Long Island Sound[48] to the New York state line 3 miles (5 km) south of Fire Island in the Atlantic Ocean. Some Suffolk County towns (Islip, Brookhaven, Southampton, East Hampton, Babylon, Huntington, Smithtown) also employ various bay constables and other local marine patrol, which are sworn armed peace officers with full arrest powers, providing back up to the Suffolk Police Marine Bureau as well as the United States Coast Guard.
This includes Fire Island and parts of Jones Island barrier beaches and the islands of the Great South Bay. Marine units also respond to water and ice rescues on the inland lakes, ponds, and streams of the District.
In February 2019, legislator Robert Trotta (R-Fort Salonga) put forward a resolution to recover salary and benefits from James Burke, the county's former police chief.[49][50] Burke had pled guilty to beating a man while in police custody and attempting to conceal it, and the county had paid the victim $1.5 million in a settlement; it had also paid Burke more than $500,000 in benefits and salary while Burke was concealing his conduct.[50][49] Trotta said that the faithless servant doctrine in New York common law gave him the power to claw back the compensation.[50] The Suffolk County Legislature supported the suit unanimously.[51] The following month Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone signed the bill.
Also in February 2019, a court ruled against the Suffolk County jail in the case of a former inmate who was denied hormone replacement therapy by the jail's doctors. Documents introduced in the trial indicate 11 other inmates were also denied treatment.[52]
Suffolk County is part of the 10th Judicial District of the New York State Unified Court System; is home to the Alfonse M. D'Amato Courthouse of the Federal U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York;[53] and has various local municipal courts. The State Courts are divided into Supreme Court, which has general jurisdiction over all cases, and lower courts that either hear claims of a limited dollar amount, or of a specific nature.[54][55] Similarly, the local courts hear claims of a limited dollar amount, or hear specific types of cases. The Federal Court has jurisdiction over Federal Claims, State Law claims that are joined with Federal claims, and claims where there is a diversity of citizenship.[56]
The Suffolk County Supreme Court is a trial court of unlimited general original jurisdiction (except as to matters which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction), but it generally only hears cases that are outside the subject-matter jurisdiction of other trial courts of more limited jurisdiction. The Suffolk County Clerk is the Clerk of the Court of the Supreme Court.
The main courthouse for the Supreme Court is in Riverhead, which has been the court's home since 1729. The original courthouse was replaced in 1855, and that courthouse was expanded in 1881.[57] The courthouse was damaged by fire and rebuilt in 1929. In 1994, a new court building was added to the complex. This Courthouse was dedicated as the "Alan D. Oshrin Supreme Court Building" on August 1, 2011.[58]
The Supreme Court also shares space in the Cohalan Court Complex in Central Islip[59] with several other courts and county agencies. Matrimonial actions are heard in the Supreme Court, and those matters are generally heard in the Supreme Court section of the Cohalan Court Complex.
The Suffolk County Court is a trial court of limited jurisdiction. It has jurisdiction over all of Suffolk County, and is authorized to handle criminal prosecutions of both felonies and lesser offenses committed within the county, although in practice most minor offenses are handled by the local courts. It is the trial court for felonies, or where a person is indicted by a Grand Jury in Suffolk County. The County Court also has limited jurisdiction in civil cases, generally involving amounts up to $25,000. The County Court is in the Cromarty Court Complex Criminal Courts Building in Riverhead.
The Suffolk County Surrogate's Court hears cases involving the affairs of decedents, including the probate of wills and the administration of estates, guardianships, and adoptions. The Surrogate's Court is in the County Center in Riverhead.
The Suffolk County Family Court has jurisdiction over all of Suffolk County in petitions filed for Neglect & Abuse, Juvenile Delinquency/Designated Felonies, Persons in Need of Supervision, Adoption, Guardianship, Foster Care, Family Offense (Order of Protection), Custody & Visitation, Paternity, Support Matters (Child & Spousal), Consent to Marry. The court also has a Juvenile Drug Court and Family Treatment Court. Individuals, attorneys, and agencies may initiate a proceeding in the Family Court with the filing of a petition. The Suffolk County Family Court is in the Cohalan Court Complex in Central Islip[59] and maintains a facility in Riverhead. Case assignment is dependent upon the geographical location of the parties.
The District Court and the Town and Village Courts are the local courts of Suffolk County. There are more than 30 local courts, each with limited criminal and civil subject matter and geographic jurisdictions. The local criminal courts have trial jurisdiction over misdemeanors, violations and infractions; preliminary jurisdiction over felonies; and traffic tickets charging a crime. The local civil courts calendar small claims, evictions, and civil actions.
Suffolk County District Court has geographic jurisdiction over the 5 western towns of Suffolk County (Babylon, Brookhaven, Huntington, Islip & Smithtown). The Criminal division of the Suffolk District Court is in the Cohalan Court Complex, Central Islip, and includes Domestic Violence Courts, Drug Court, and a Mental Health Court. The Civil division is divided up in the 5 "outlying" courthouses in Lindenhurst, Huntington Station, Hauppauge, Ronkonkoma, and Patchogue. Civil actions may be filed up to $15,000, and small claims actions up to $5000. Actions are commenced by filing with the court. Summary proceedings under the RPAPL are filed in the district where the property is located.
The Town Courts of East Hampton, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Southampton, and Southold have geographic jurisdiction over the 5 eastern towns of Suffolk County. Each town maintains a courthouse where judges hear criminal cases (including a regional Drug Court) and civil actions. Civil actions are commenced by serving a summons and complaint for claims up to $3,000, and small claims actions are heard up to $3000. Summary proceedings under the RPAPL are filed in the town where the property is located.
The Village Courts of Amityville, Asharoken, Babylon, Belle Terre, Bellport, Brightwaters, Head of the Harbor, Huntington Bay, Islandia, Lake Grove, Lindenhurst, Lloyd Harbor, Nissequogue, Northport, Ocean Beach, Old Field, Patchogue, Poquott, Port Jefferson, Quogue, Sag Harbor, Saltaire, Shoreham, Southampton, Village of the Branch, West Hampton Dunes, and Westhampton Beach have geographic jurisdiction within each incorporated village. Criminal and civil subject matter jurisdiction varies in each court.
Most non-criminal moving violation tickets issued in the five west towns are handled by the Traffic Violations Bureau, which is part of the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles, not the court system.
Fire Island Lighthouse was an important landmark for many trans-Atlantic ships coming into New York Harbor in the early 20th century. For many European immigrants, the Fire Island Light was their first sight of land upon arrival in America.
The Great South Bay Bridge, the first causeway bridge, had only one northbound and one southbound lane, was opened to traffic in April 1954. The span of 2 miles (3 km) across Great South Bay to Captree Island features a main span of 600 feet (200 m), with a clearance for boats of 60 feet (20 m).
The Fire Island Inlet Bridge continues the two-lane road, one lane in each direction, across Fire Island Inlet to its terminus at Robert Moses State Park and The Fire Island Lighthouse. Robert Moses Causeway opened in 1964.
Suffolk County has the most lighthouses of any United States county, with 15 of its original 26 lighthouses still standing. Of these 15, eight are in Southold township alone, giving it more lighthouses than any other township in the United States.
At various times, there have been proposals for a division of Suffolk County into two counties. The western portion would be called Suffolk County, while the eastern portion of the current Suffolk County would comprise a new county to be called Peconic County. Peconic County would consist of the five easternmost towns of Suffolk County: East Hampton, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Southampton and Southold, plus the Shinnecock Indian Reservation.
The proposed Peconic County flag showed the two forks at the east end of Long Island separated by Peconic Bay. The star on the north represents Southold. The stars on the South Fork represent Southampton and East Hampton. Riverhead is at the fork mouth and Shelter Island is between the forks.
The secessionist movement has not been active since 1998.
The End of the Hamptons: Scenes from the Class Struggle in America's Paradise, by Corey Dolgon (New York University Press, 2005[66]) examined the class roots of the secessionist movement in the Hamptons. In his review, Howard Zinn wrote that the book "[t]akes us beyond the much-romanticized beaches of Long Island to the rich entrepreneurs and their McMansions, the Latino workers, and the stubborn indigenous residents refusing to disappear. The book is important because it is in so many ways a microcosm of the nation."[67] The book won the Association for Humanist Sociology's 2005 Book Prize and the American Sociological Association's Marxist Section Book Award in 2007.
Matt DeSimone, a young adult from Southold, and his partner Jake Dominy unsuccessfully started a similar movement in the late 2010s.
Suffolk County has an 8.625% sales tax, compared to an overall New York State sales tax of 4%, consisting of an additional 4.25% on top of the state and MTA assessment of .375%[68]
In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic first affected the county. As of December 12, 2020, there have been a total of 73,281 cases and 2,153 deaths from the virus.[69]
Municipalities of Suffolk CountyA map outlining the villages (grey), hamlets, and CDPs of Suffolk County
In the State of New York, a town is the major subdivision of each county. Towns provide or arrange for most municipal services for residents of hamlets and selected services for residents of villages. All residents of New York who do not live in a city or on an Indian reservation live in a town. A village is an incorporated area which is usually, but not always, within a single town. A village is a clearly defined municipality that provides the services closest to the residents, such as garbage collection, street and highway maintenance, street lighting and building codes. Some villages provide their own police and other optional services. A hamlet is an informally defined populated area within a town that is not part of a village.
Figures in parentheses are 2022 population estimates from the Census Bureau.[70]
Gardiners Island is an island off eastern Suffolk County. The Island is 6 miles (10 km) long, and 3 miles (5 km) wide and has 27 miles (43 km) of coastline. The same family has owned the Island for nearly 400 years; one of the largest privately owned islands in America or the world. In addition, it is the only American real estate still intact as part of an original royal grant from the English Crown.
Robins Island is an Island in the Peconic Bay between the North and South folks of eastern Suffolk County. It is within the jurisdiction of Town of Southold in Suffolk County, New York. The Island is 435 acres (1.8 km2) and presently undeveloped. The island is privately owned and not accessible to the public.
The county includes a lot of roadways and other public transportation infrastructure. The local Suffolk County Legislature oversees funding and regulations for the infrastructure.[5] In 2019, the legislature required all new projects to account for future climate change caused sea level rise.[5]
I-495 (Long Island Expressway) traverses the county from the Nassau County line in the West to Riverhead in the East. Original plans called for the Expressway to extend further past Riverhead and along the island's North Fork, possibly to Orient Point, where a crossing to Connecticut could be built. The expressway connects to Manhattan via the Queens-Midtown Tunnel.[71]
The borough, as Kings County, at 37,339.9 inhabitants per square mile (14,417.0/km2), is the second most densely populated county in the U.S. after Manhattan (New York County), and the most populous county in the state, as of 2022.[7] In the 2020 United States census,[3] the population stood at 2,736,074.[8][9][10] Had Brooklyn remained an independent city on Long Island, it would now be the fourth most populous American city after the rest of New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, while ahead of Houston.[10] With a land area of 69.38 square miles (179.7 km2) and a water area of 27.48 square miles (71.2 km2), Kings County, one of the twelve original counties established under British rule in 1683 in the then-province of New York, is the state of New York's fourth-smallest county by land area and third smallest by total area.[11]
Brooklyn, named after the Dutch town of Breukelen in the Netherlands, was founded by the Dutch in the 17thcentury and grew into a busy port city on New York Harbor by the 19thcentury. On January1, 1898, after a long political campaign and public-relations battle during the 1890s and despite opposition from Brooklyn residents, Brooklyn was consolidated in and annexed, along with other areas, to form the current five-borough structure of New York City in accordance to the new municipal charter of Greater New York.[12] The borough continues to maintain some distinct culture. Many Brooklyn neighborhoods are ethnic enclaves. With Jews forming around a fifth of its population, the borough has been described as one of the main global hubs for Jewish culture.[13] Brooklyn's official motto, displayed on the borough seal and flag, is Eendraght Maeckt Maght, which translates from early modern Dutch as 'Unity makes strength'.[14]
The name Brooklyn is derived from the original Dutch town of Breukelen. The oldest mention of the settlement in the Netherlands is in a charter of 953 by Holy Roman Emperor Otto I as Broecklede.[21] This form is made up of the words broeck, meaning bog or marshland, and lede, meaning small (dug) water stream, specifically in peat areas.[22] Breuckelen on the American continent was established in 1646, and the name first appeared in print in 1663.[23][24][25]
Over the past two millennia, the name of the ancient town in Holland has been Bracola, Broccke, Brocckede, Broiclede, Brocklandia, Broekclen, Broikelen, Breuckelen, and finally Breukelen.[26] The New Amsterdam settlement of Breuckelen also went through many spelling variations, including Breucklyn, Breuckland, Brucklyn, Broucklyn, Brookland, Brockland, Brocklin, and Brookline/Brook-line. There have been so many variations of the name that its origin has been debated; some have claimed breuckelen means "broken land".[27] The current name, however, is the one that best reflects its meaning.[28][29]
The county's name, Kings County, was named after King Charles II of England, who ruled from 1660 to 1685.
The history of European settlement in Brooklyn spans more than 350 years. The settlement began in the 17th century as the small Dutch-founded town of "Breuckelen" on the East River shore of Long Island, grew to be a sizeable city in the 19th century and was consolidated in 1898 with New York City (then confined to Manhattan and the Bronx), the remaining rural areas of Kings County, and the largely rural areas of Queens and Staten Island, to form the modern City of New York.
The Dutch were the first Europeans to settle Long Island's western edge, which was then largely inhabited by the Lenape, an Algonquian-speaking American Indian tribe often referred to in European documents by a variation of the place name "Canarsie". Bands were associated with place names, but the colonists thought their names represented different tribes. The Breuckelen settlement was named after Breukelen in the Netherlands; it was part of New Netherland. The Dutch West India Company lost little time in chartering the six original parishes (listed here by their later English town names):[30]
Brooklyn Heights: chartered as Breuckelen in 1646, after the town now spelled Breukelen, Netherlands. Breuckelen was along Fulton Street (now Fulton Mall) between Hoyt Street and Smith Street (according to H. Stiles and P. Ross). Brooklyn Heights, or Clover Hill, is where the village of Brooklyn was founded in 1816;
Bushwick: chartered as Boswijck in 1661.
A dining table from the Dutch village of Brooklyn, c. 1664, in The Brooklyn Museum
The colony's capital of New Amsterdam, across the East River, obtained its charter in 1653. The neighborhood of Marine Park was home to North America's first tide mill. It was built by the Dutch, and the foundation can be seen today. But the area was not formally settled as a town. Many incidents and documents relating to this period are in Gabriel Furman's 1824 compilation.[31]
On November 1, 1683, Kings County was partitioned from the West Riding of York Shire, containing the six old Dutch towns on southwestern Long Island,[32] as one of the "original twelve counties". This tract of land was recognized as a political entity for the first time, and the municipal groundwork was laid for a later expansive idea of a Brooklyn identity.
Washington, viewing particularly fierce fighting at the Gowanus Creek and Old Stone House from atop a hill near the west end of present-day Atlantic Avenue, was reported to have emotionally exclaimed: "What brave men I must this day lose!".[34]
The fortified American positions at Brooklyn Heights consequently became untenable and were evacuated a few days later, leaving the British in control of New York Harbor. While Washington's defeat on the battlefield cast early doubts on his ability as the commander, the tactical withdrawal of all his troops and supplies across the East River in a single night is now seen by historians as one of his most brilliant triumphs.[34]
The British controlled the surrounding region for the duration of the war, as New York City was soon occupied and became their military and political base of operations in British-held North America for the remainder of the conflict. The Patriot residents largely fled or changed their political sentiments, and afterward the British generally enjoyed a dominant Loyalist sentiment from the residents in Kings County who did not evacuate, though the region was also the center of the fledgling—and largely successful—Patriot intelligence network, headed by Washington himself.
The first half of the 19th century saw the beginning of the development of urban areas on the economically strategic East River shore of Kings County, facing the adolescent City of New York confined to Manhattan Island. The New York Navy Yard operated in Wallabout Bay (border between Fort Greene and Williamsburg) during the 19th century and two-thirds of the 20th century.
In a parallel development, the Town of Bushwick, farther up the river, saw the incorporation of the Village of Williamsburgh in 1827, which separated as the Town of Williamsburgh in 1840 and formed the short-lived City of Williamsburgh in 1851. Industrial deconcentration in the mid-century was bringing shipbuilding and other manufacturing to the northern part of the county. Each of the two cities and six towns in Kings County remained independent municipalities and purposely created non-aligning street grids with different naming systems.
However, the East River shore was growing too fast for the three-year-old infant City of Williamsburg; it, along with its Town of Bushwick hinterland, was subsumed within a greater City of Brooklyn in 1855, subsequently dropping the 'h' from its name.[35]
By 1841, with the appearance of The Brooklyn Eagle, and Kings County Democrat published by Alfred G. Stevens, the growing city across the East River from Manhattan was producing its own prominent newspaper.[36] It later became the most popular and highest circulation afternoon paper in America.[citation needed] The publisher changed to L. Van Anden on April 19, 1842,[37] and the paper was renamed The Brooklyn Daily Eagle and Kings County Democrat on June 1, 1846.[38] On May 14, 1849, the name was shortened to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle;[39] on September 5, 1938, it was further shortened to Brooklyn Eagle.[40] The establishment of the paper in the 1840s helped develop a separate identity for Brooklynites over the next century. The borough's soon-to-be-famous National League baseball team, the Brooklyn Dodgers, also assisted with this. Both major institutions were lost in the 1950s: the paper closed in 1955 after unsuccessful attempts at a sale following a reporters' strike, and the baseball team decamped for Los Angeles in a realignment of Major League Baseball in 1957.
Agitation against Southernslavery was stronger in Brooklyn than in New York,[41] and under Republican leadership, the city was fervent in the Union cause in the Civil War. After the war the Henry Ward Beecher Monument was built downtown to honor a famous local abolitionist. A great victory arch was built at what was then the south end of town to celebrate the armed forces; this place is now called Grand Army Plaza.
The number of people living in Brooklyn grew rapidly early in the 19th century. There were 4,402 by 1810, 7,175 in 1820 and 15,396 by 1830.[42] The city's population was 25,000 in 1834, but the police department comprised only 12 men on the day shift and another 12 on the night shift. Every time a rash of burglaries broke out, officials blamed burglars from New York City. Finally, in 1855, a modern police force was created, employing 150 men. Voters complained of inadequate protection and excessive costs. In 1857, the state legislature merged the Brooklyn force with that of New York City.[43]
Fervent in the Union cause, the city of Brooklyn played a major role in supplying troops and materiel for the American Civil War. The best-known regiment to be sent off to war from the city was the 14th Brooklyn"Red Legged Devils". They fought from 1861 to 1864, wore red the entire war, and were the only regiment named after a city. President Abraham Lincoln called them into service, making them part of a handful of three-year enlisted soldiers in April 1861. Unlike other regiments during the American Civil War, the 14th wore a uniform inspired by the French Chasseurs, a light infantry used for quick assaults.
As a seaport and a manufacturing center, Brooklyn was well prepared to contribute to the Union's strengths in shipping and manufacturing. The two combined in shipbuilding; the ironclad Monitor was built in Brooklyn.
Brooklyn is referred to as the twin city of New York in the 1883 poem, "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus, which appears on a plaque inside the Statue of Liberty. The poem calls New York Harbor "the air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame". As a twin city to New York, it played a role in national affairs that was later overshadowed by decades of subordination by its old partner and rival.
The rapidly growing population needed more water, so the City built centralized waterworks, including the Ridgewood Reservoir. The municipal Police Department, however, was abolished in 1854 in favor of a Metropolitan force covering also New York and Westchester Counties. In 1865 the Brooklyn Fire Department (BFD) also gave way to the new Metropolitan Fire District.
Throughout this period the peripheral towns of Kings County, far from Manhattan and even from urban Brooklyn, maintained their rustic independence. The only municipal change seen was the secession of the eastern section of the Town of Flatbush as the Town of New Lots in 1852. The building of rail links such as the Brighton Beach Line in 1878 heralded the end of this isolation.
Sports in Brooklyn became a business. The Brooklyn Bridegrooms played professional baseball at Washington Park in the convenient suburb of Park Slope and elsewhere. Early in the next century, under their new name of Brooklyn Dodgers, they brought baseball to Ebbets Field, beyond Prospect Park. Racetracks, amusement parks, and beach resorts opened in Brighton Beach, Coney Island, and elsewhere in the southern part of the county.
Toward the end of the 19th century, the City of Brooklyn experienced its final, explosive growth spurt. Park Slope was rapidly urbanized, with its eastern summit soon emerging as the city's third "Gold Coast" district alongside Brooklyn Heights and The Hill; notable residents of the era included American Chicle Company co-founder Thomas Adams Jr. and New York Central Railroad executive Clinton L. Rossiter. East of The Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant coalesced as an upper middle class enclave for lawyers, shopkeepers, and merchants of German and Irish descent (notably exemplified by John C. Kelley, a water meter magnate and close friend of President Grover Cleveland), with nearby Crown Heights gradually fulfilling an analogous role for the city's Jewish population as development continued through the early 20th century. Northeast of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick (by now a working class, predominantly German district) established a considerable brewery industry; the so-called "Brewer's Row" encompassed 14 breweries operating in a 14-block area in 1890. On the southwestern waterfront of Kings County, railroads and industrialization spread to Sunset Park (then coterminous with the city's sprawling, sparsely populated Eighth Ward) and adjacent Bay Ridge (hitherto a resort-like subsection of the Town of New Utrecht). Within a decade, the city had annexed the Town of New Lots in 1886; the Towns of Flatbush, Gravesend and New Utrecht in 1894; and the Town of Flatlands in 1896. Brooklyn had reached its natural municipal boundaries at the ends of Kings County.
Low's time in office from 1882 to 1885 was marked by a number of reforms:[44]
Secured a degree of "home rule" of the city. Previously, the State Government dictated city policies, hiring, salaries, and other affairs. Low managed to secure an unofficial veto over all Brooklyn bills in the State Assembly.
Instituted a number of educational reforms. He was the first to integrate Brooklyn schools. He introduced free textbooks for all students, not just those who had taken a pauper's oath. He instituted a competitive examination for hiring teachers, instead of giving teaching jobs to pay political debts. He set aside $430,000 (equivalent to $14,010,586 in 2024) for the construction of new schools to accommodate 10,000 new students.
Introduced Civil Service Code to all city employees, eliminating patronage jobs.
German Americans wanted to enjoy their local beer gardens on the Sabbath, in violation of state "dry" laws and the demands of local puritanical clergy. Low's compromise solution was that saloons could stay open as long as they were orderly. At the first sign of rowdiness, they would be closed.
Served as a member of the board of the New York Bridge Company, the company that built the Brooklyn Bridge, and led an unsuccessful effort to remove Washington Roebling as the chief engineer on that project.[45]
Raised the tax rate from 2.33% of $100 assessed valuation in 1881 to 2.59% in 1883.[44] He also went after property owners who had not paid back taxes. This increase in city revenue enabled him to reduce the city's debt and increase services. However, raising taxes proved extremely unpopular.
Brooklyn elected a mayor from 1834 until 1898, after which it was consolidated into the City of Greater New York, whose own second mayor (1902–1903), Seth Low, had been Mayor of Brooklyn from 1882 to 1885. Since 1898, Brooklyn has, in place of a separate mayor, elected a Borough President.
In 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was completed, transportation to Manhattan was no longer by water only, and the City of Brooklyn's ties to the City of New York were strengthened.
The question became whether Brooklyn was prepared to engage in the still-grander process of consolidation then developing throughout the region, whether to join with the county of Richmond and the western portion of Queens County, and the county of New York, which by then already included the Bronx, to form the five boroughs of a united City of New York. Andrew Haswell Green and other progressives said yes, and eventually, they prevailed against the Daily Eagle and other conservative forces. In 1894, residents of Brooklyn and the other counties voted by a slight majority to merge, effective in 1898.[47]
Kings County retained its status as one of New York State's counties, but the loss of Brooklyn's separate identity as a city was met with consternation by some residents at the time. Many newspapers of the day called the merger the "Great Mistake of 1898".[48]
Location of Brooklyn (red) within New York City (remainder yellow)USGS map of Brooklyn (2019)
Brooklyn is 97 square miles (250 km2) in area, of which 71 square miles (180 km2) is land (73%), and 26 square miles (67 km2) is water (27%); the borough is the second-largest by land area among the New York City's boroughs. However, Kings County, coterminous with Brooklyn, is New York State's fourth-smallest county by land area and third-smallest by total area.[9] Brooklyn lies at the southwestern end of Long Island, and the borough's western border constitutes the island's western tip.
Under the Köppen climate classification, Brooklyn experiences a humid subtropical climate (Cfa),[49] with partial shielding from the Appalachian Mountains and moderating influences from the Atlantic Ocean. Brooklyn receives plentiful precipitation all year round, with nearly 50 in (1,300 mm) yearly. The area averages 234 days with at least some sunshine annually, and averages 57% of possible sunshine annually, accumulating 2,535 hours of sunshine per annum.[50] Brooklyn lies in the USDAplant hardiness zone 7b.[51]
Climate data for JFK Airport, New York (normals 1981–2010,[52] extremes 1948–present)
Brooklyn's neighborhoods are dynamic in ethnic composition. For example, the early to mid-20th century, Brownsville had a majority of Jewish residents; since the 1970s it has been majority African American. Midwood during the early 20th century was filled with ethnic Irish, then filled with Jewish residents for nearly 50 years, and is slowly becoming a Pakistani enclave. Brooklyn's most populous racial group, white, declined from 97.2% in 1930 to 46.9% by 1990.[57]
Given New York City's role as a crossroads for immigration from around the world, Brooklyn has evolved a globally cosmopolitan ambiance of its own, demonstrating a robust and growing demographic and cultural diversity with respect to metrics including nationality, religion, race, and domiciliary partnership. In 2010, 51.6% of the population was counted as members of religious congregations.[65] In 2014, there were 914 religious organizations in Brooklyn, the 10th most of all counties in the nation.[66] Brooklyn contains dozens of distinct neighborhoods representing many of the major culturally identified groups found within New York City. Among the most prominent are listed below:
Over 600,000 Jews, particularly Orthodox and Hasidic Jews, have become concentrated in such historically Jewish areas as Borough Park, Williamsburg, and Midwood, where there are many yeshivas, synagogues, and kosher restaurants, as well as a variety of Jewish businesses. Adjacent to Borough Park, the Kensington area housed a significant population of Conservative Jews (under the aegis of such nationally prominent midcentury rabbis as Jacob Bosniak and Abraham Heller)[67] when it was still considered to be a subsection of Flatbush; many of their defunct facilities have been repurposed to serve extensions of the Borough Park Hasidic community. Other notable religious Jewish neighborhoods with a longstanding cultural lineage include Canarsie, Sea Gate, and Crown Heights, home to the Chabad world headquarters. Neighborhoods with largely defunct yet historically notable Jewish populations include central Flatbush, East Flatbush, Brownsville, East New York, Bensonhurst and Sheepshead Bay (particularly its Madison subsection). Many hospitals in Brooklyn were started by Jewish charities, including Maimonides Medical Center in Borough Park and Brookdale Hospital in East Flatbush.[68][69]
According to the American Jewish Population Project in 2020, Brooklyn was home to over 480,000 Jews.[70] In 2023, the UJA-Federation of New York estimated that Brooklyn is home to 462,000 Jews, a large decrease compared to the 561,000 estimated in 2011.[71]
The predominantly Jewish, Crown Heights (and later East Flatbush)-based Madison Democratic Club served as the borough's primary "clubhouse" political venue for decades until the ascendancy of Meade Esposito's rival, Canarsie-based Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club in the 1960s and 1970s, playing an integral role in the rise of such figures as Speaker of the New York State AssemblyIrwin Steingut; his son, fellow Speaker Stanley Steingut; New York City MayorAbraham Beame; real estate developer Fred Trump; Democratic district leader Beadie Markowitz; and political fixer Abraham "Bunny" Lindenbaum.
Many non-Orthodox Jews (ranging from observant members of various denominations to atheists of Jewish cultural heritage) are concentrated in Ditmas Park and Park Slope, with smaller observant and culturally Jewish populations in Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Brighton Beach, and Coney Island.
Over 200,000 Chinese Americans live throughout the southern parts of Brooklyn, primarily concentrated in Sunset Park, Bensonhurst, Gravesend, and Homecrest. Brooklyn is the borough that is home to the highest number of Chinatowns in New York City. The largest concentration is in Sunset Park along 8th Avenue, which has become known for its Chinese culture since the opening of the now-defunct Winley Supermarket in 1986 spurred widespread settlement in the area. It is called "Brooklyn's Chinatown" and originally it was a small Chinese enclave with Cantonese speakers being the main Chinese population during the late 1980s and 1990s, but since the 2000s, the Chinese population in the area dramatically shifted to majority Fuzhounese Americans, which contributed immensely to expanding this Chinatown, and bestowing the nicknames "Fuzhou Town (福州埠), Brooklyn" or the "Little Fuzhou (小福州)" of Brooklyn. Many Chinese restaurants can be found throughout Sunset Park, and the area hosts a popular Chinese New Year celebration. Since the 2000s going forward, the growing concentration of the Cantonese speaking population in Brooklyn have dramatically shifted to Bensonhurst/Gravesend and Homecrest creating newer Chinatowns of Brooklyn and these newer Brooklyn Chinatowns are known as "Brooklyn's Little Hong Kong/Guangdong" due to their Chinese populations being overwhelmingly Cantonese populated.[72][73]
Brooklyn's African American and Caribbean communities are spread throughout much of Brooklyn. Brooklyn's West Indian community is concentrated in the Crown Heights, Flatbush, East Flatbush, Kensington, and Canarsie neighborhoods in central Brooklyn. Brooklyn is home to the largest community of West Indians outside of the Caribbean. Although the largest West Indian groups in Brooklyn are Jamaicans, Guyanese and Haitians, there are West Indian immigrants from nearly every part of the Caribbean. Crown Heights and Flatbush are home to many of Brooklyn's West Indian restaurants and bakeries. Brooklyn has an annual, celebrated Carnival in the tradition of pre-Lenten celebrations in the islands.[74] Started by natives of Trinidad and Tobago, the West Indian Labor Day Parade takes place every Labor Day on Eastern Parkway. The Brooklyn Academy of Music also holds the DanceAfrica festival in late May, featuring street vendors and dance performances showcasing food and culture from all parts of Africa.[75][76] Since the opening of the IND Fulton Street Line in 1936, Bedford-Stuyvesant has been home to one of the most famous African American communities in the United States. Working-class communities remain prevalent in Brownsville, East New York and Coney Island, while remnants of similar communities in Prospect Heights, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill have endured amid widespread gentrification.
In the aftermath of World War II and subsequent urban renewal initiatives that decimated longtime Manhattan enclaves (most notably on the Upper West Side), Puerto Rican migrants began to settle in such waterfront industrial neighborhoods as Sunset Park, Red Hook and Gowanus, near the shipyards and factories where they worked. The borough's Hispanic population diversified after the 1965 Hart-Cellar Act loosened restrictions on immigration from elsewhere in Latin America.
Bushwick has since emerged as the largest hub of Brooklyn's Hispanic American community. Like other Hispanic neighborhoods in New York City, Bushwick has an established Puerto Rican presence, along with an influx of many Dominicans, South Americans, Central Americans and Mexicans. As nearly 80% of Bushwick's population is Hispanic, its residents have created many businesses to support their various national and distinct traditions in food and other items. Sunset Park's population is 42% Hispanic, made up of these various ethnic groups. Brooklyn's main Hispanic groups are Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Dominicans and Ecuadorians; they are spread out throughout the borough. Puerto Ricans and Dominicans are predominant in Bushwick, Williamsburg's South Side and East New York. Mexicans (especially from the state of Puebla) now predominate alongside Chinese immigrants in Sunset Park, although remnants of the neighborhood's once-substantial postwar Puerto Rican and Dominican communities continue to reside below 39th Street. Save for Red Hook (which remained roughly one-fifth Hispanic American as of the 2010 Census), the South Side and Sunset Park, similar postwar communities in other waterfront neighborhoods—including western Park Slope, the north end of Greenpoint,[77] and Boerum Hill, long considered the northern subsection of Gowanus—largely disappeared by the turn of the century due to various factors, including deindustrialization, ensuing gentrification and suburbanization among more affluent Dominicans and Puerto Ricans. A Panamanian enclave exists in Crown Heights.
Brooklyn is also home to many Russians and Ukrainians, who are mainly concentrated in the areas of Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay. Brighton Beach features many Russian and Ukrainian businesses and has been nicknamed Little Russia and Little Odessa, respectively. In the 1970s, Soviet Jews won the right to immigrate, and many ended up in Brighton Beach. In recent years, the non-Jewish Russian and Ukrainian communities of Brighton Beach have grown, and the area is now home to a diverse collection of immigrants from across the former USSR. Smaller concentrations of Russian and Ukrainian Americans are scattered elsewhere in south Brooklyn, including Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Homecrest, Coney Island, and Mill Basin. A growing community of Uzbek Americans have settled alongside them in recent years due to their ability to speak Russian.[78][79]
Brooklyn's Polish inhabitants are historically concentrated in Greenpoint, home to Little Poland. Other longstanding settlements in Borough Park and Sunset Park have endured, while more recent immigrants are scattered throughout the southern parts of Brooklyn alongside the Russian and Ukrainian American communities.
Despite widespread migration to Staten Island and more suburban areas in metropolitan New York throughout the postwar era, notable concentrations of Italian Americans continue to reside in the neighborhoods of Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights, Bay Ridge, Bath Beach and Gravesend. Less perceptible remnants of older communities have persisted in Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens, where the homes of the remaining Italian Americans can often be contrasted with more recent upper middle class residents through the display of small Madonna statues, the retention of plastic-metal stoop awnings and the use of Formstone in house cladding. All of the aforementioned neighborhoods have retained Italian restaurants, bakeries, delicatessens, pizzerias, cafes and social clubs.
In the early 20th century, many Lebanese and Syrian Christians settled around Atlantic Avenue west of Flatbush Avenue in Boerum Hill; more recently, this area has evolved into a Yemeni commercial district. More recent, predominantly MuslimArab immigrants, especially Egyptians and Lebanese, have moved into the southwest portion of Brooklyn, particularly to Bay Ridge, where many Middle Eastern restaurants, hookah lounges, halal grocers, Islamic shops and mosques line the commercial thoroughfares of Fifth and Third Avenues below 86th Street. Brighton Beach is home to a growing Pakistani American community, while Midwood is home to Little Pakistan along Coney Island Avenue (recently co-named Muhammad Ali Jinnah Way). Pakistani Independence Day is celebrated every year with parades and parties on Coney Island Avenue. Just to the north, Kensington is one of New York's several emerging Bangladeshi enclaves.
Third-, fourth- and fifth-generation Irish Americans can be found throughout Brooklyn, with moderate concentrations[clarification needed] enduring in the neighborhoods of Windsor Terrace, Park Slope, Bay Ridge, Marine Park and Gerritsen Beach. Historical communities also existed in Vinegar Hill and other waterfront industrial neighborhoods, such as Greenpoint and Sunset Park. Paralleling the Italian American community, many moved to Staten Island and suburban areas in the postwar era. Those that stayed engendered close-knit, stable working-to-middle class communities through employment in the civil service (especially in law enforcement, transportation, and the New York City Fire Department) and the building and construction trades, while others were subsumed by the professional-managerial class and largely shed the Irish American community's distinct cultural traditions (including continued worship in the Catholic Church and other social activities, such as Irish stepdance and frequenting Irish American bars).[citation needed]
While not as extensive as the Indian American population in Queens, younger professionals of Asian Indian origin are finding Brooklyn to be a convenient alternative to Manhattan to find housing. Nearly 30,000 Indian Americans call Brooklyn home.[citation needed]
Brooklyn's Greek Americans live throughout the borough. A historical concentration has endured in Bay Ridge and adjacent areas, where there is a noticeable cluster of Hellenic-focused schools, businesses and cultural institutions. Other businesses are situated in Downtown Brooklyn near Atlantic Avenue. As in much of the New York metropolitan area, Greek-owned diners are found throughout the borough.
Brooklyn is home to a large and growing number of same-sex couples. Same-sex marriages in New York were legalized on June 24, 2011, and were authorized to take place beginning 30 days thereafter.[80] The Park Slope neighborhood spearheaded the popularity of Brooklyn among lesbians, and Prospect Heights has an LGBT residential presence.[81] Numerous neighborhoods have since become home to LGBT communities. Brooklyn Liberation March, the largest transgender-rights demonstration in LGBTQ history, took place on June 14, 2020, stretching from Grand Army Plaza to Fort Greene, focused on supporting Black transgender lives, drawing an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 participants.[82][83]
Brooklyn became a preferred site for artists and hipsters to set up live/work spaces after being priced out of the same types of living arrangements in Manhattan. Various neighborhoods in Brooklyn, including Williamsburg, DUMBO, Red Hook, and Park Slope evolved as popular neighborhoods for artists-in-residence. However, rents and costs of living have since increased dramatically in these same neighborhoods, forcing artists to move to somewhat less expensive neighborhoods in Brooklyn or across Upper New York Bay to locales in New Jersey, such as Jersey City or Hoboken.[84]
At the 2020 census, 2,736,074 people lived in Brooklyn. The United States Census Bureau had estimated Brooklyn's population increased by 2.2% to 2,559,903 between 2010 and 2019. Brooklyn's estimated population represented 30.7% of New York City's estimated population of 8,336,817; 33.5% of Long Island's population of 7,701,172; and 13.2% of New York State's population of 19,542,209.[98] In 2020, the government of New York City projected Brooklyn's population at 2,648,403.[99] The 2019 census estimates determined there were 958,567 households with an average of 2.66 persons per household.[100] There were 1,065,399 housing units in 2019 and a median gross rent of $1,426. Citing growth, Brooklyn gained 9,696 building permits at the 2019 census estimates program.
The 2020 American Community Survey estimated the racial and ethnic makeup of Brooklyn was 35.4% non-Hispanic white, 26.7% Black or African American, 0.9% American Indian or Alaska Native, 13.6% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, 4.1% two or more races, and 18.9% Hispanic or Latin American of any race.[96] According to the 2010 United States census, Brooklyn's population was 42.8% White, including 35.7% non-Hispanic White; 34.3% Black, including 31.9% non-Hispanic black; 10.5% Asian; 0.5% Native American; 0.0% (rounded) Pacific Islander; 3.0% Multiracial American; and 8.8% from other races. Hispanics and Latinos made up 19.8% of Brooklyn's population.[104] In 2010, Brooklyn had some neighborhoods segregated based on race, ethnicity, and religion. Overall, the southwest half of Brooklyn is racially mixed although it contains few black residents; the northeast section is mostly black and Hispanic/Latino.[105]
Brooklyn has played a major role in various aspects of American culture, including literature, cinema, and theater. Brooklyn's accent has often been portrayed as the "typical New Yorker accent" in American media, although this accent and its stereotypes are supposedly diminishing in currency.[107] Brooklyn's official colors are blue and gold.[108]
The Brooklyn Museum, opened in 1897, is New York City's second-largest public art museum. It has in its permanent collection more than 1.5 million objects, from ancient Egyptian masterpieces to contemporary art. The Brooklyn Children's Museum, the world's first museum dedicated to children, opened in December 1899. The only such New York State institution accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, it is one of the few globally to have a permanent collection – over 30,000 cultural objects and natural history specimens.
The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) includes a 2,109-seat opera house, an 874-seat theater, and the art-house BAM Rose Cinemas. Bargemusic and St. Ann's Warehouse are on the other side of Downtown Brooklyn in the DUMBO arts district. Brooklyn Technical High School has the second-largest auditorium in New York City (after Radio City Music Hall), with a seating capacity of over 3,000.[109]
The borough is home to the arts and politics monthly Brooklyn Rail, as well as the arts and cultural quarterly Cabinet. Hello Mr. is also published in Brooklyn.
Brooklyn Magazine is one of the few glossy magazines about Brooklyn. Several others are now defunct, including BKLYN Magazine (a bimonthly lifestyle book owned by Joseph McCarthy, that saw itself as a vehicle for high-end advertisers in Manhattan and was mailed to 80,000 high-income households), Brooklyn Bridge Magazine, The Brooklynite (a free, glossy quarterly edited by Daniel Treiman), and NRG (edited by Gail Johnson and originally marketed as a local periodical for Clinton Hill and Fort Greene, but expanded in scope to become the self-proclaimed "Pulse of Brooklyn" and then the "Pulse of New York").[112]
Brooklyn has a thriving ethnic press. El Diario La Prensa, the largest and oldest Spanish-language daily newspaper in the United States, maintains its corporate headquarters at 1 MetroTech Center in Downtown Brooklyn.[113] Major ethnic publications include the Brooklyn–Queens Catholic paper The Tablet, Hamodia, an Orthodox Jewish daily, and The Jewish Press, an Orthodox Jewish weekly. Many nationally distributed ethnic newspapers are based in Brooklyn. Over 60 ethnic groups, writing in 42 languages, publish some 300 non-English language magazines and newspapers in New York City. Among them is the quarterly L'Idea, a bilingual magazine printed in Italian and English since 1974. In addition, many newspapers published abroad, such as The Daily Gleaner and The Star of Jamaica, are available in Brooklyn.[citation needed]Our Time Press, published weekly by DBG Media, covers the Village of Brooklyn with a motto of "The Local Paper with the Global View".
Brooklyn's job market is driven by three main factors: the performance of the national and city economy, population flows and the borough's position as a convenient back office for New York's businesses.[118]
Forty-four percent of Brooklyn's employed population, or 410,000 people, work in the borough; more than half of the borough's residents work outside its boundaries. As a result, economic conditions in Manhattan are important to the borough's jobseekers. Strong international immigration to Brooklyn generates jobs in services, retailing and construction.[118]
Since the late 20th century, Brooklyn has benefited from a steady influx of financial back office operations from Manhattan, the rapid growth of a high-tech and entertainment economy in DUMBO, and strong growth in support services such as accounting, personal supply agencies, and computer services firms.[118]
Jobs in the borough were traditionally concentrated in manufacturing, but since 1975, Brooklyn has shifted from a manufacturing-based to a service-based economy. In 2004, 215,000 Brooklyn residents worked in the services sector, while 27,500 worked in manufacturing. Although manufacturing has declined, a substantial base has remained in apparel and niche manufacturing concerns such as furniture, fabricated metals, and food products.[119] The pharmaceutical company Pfizer was founded in Brooklyn in 1869 and had a manufacturing plant in the borough for many years that employed thousands of workers, but the plant shut down in 2008. However, new light-manufacturing concerns in packaging organic and high-end food have sprung up in the old plant.[120]
Established as a shipbuilding facility in 1801, the Brooklyn Navy Yard employed 70,000 people at its peak during World War II and was then the largest employer in the borough. The Missouri, the ship on which the Japanese formally surrendered, was built there, as was the Maine, whose sinking off Havana led to the start of the Spanish–American War. The iron-sided Civil War vessel the Monitor was built in Greenpoint. From 1968 to 1979 Seatrain Shipbuilding was the major employer.[121] Later tenants include industrial design firms, food processing businesses, artisans, and the film and television production industry. About 230 private-sector firms providing 4,000 jobs are at the Yard.
Construction and services are the fastest-growing sectors.[122] Most employers in Brooklyn are small businesses. In 2000, 91% of the approximately 38,704 business establishments in Brooklyn had fewer than 20 employees.[123] As of August 2008[update], the borough's unemployment rate was 5.9%.[124]
Brooklyn Botanic Garden: adjacent to Prospect Park is the 52-acre (21 ha) botanical garden, which includes a cherry tree esplanade, a one-acre (0.4 ha) rose garden, a Japanese hill, and pond garden, a fragrance garden, a water lily pond esplanade, several conservatories, a rock garden, a native flora garden, a bonsai tree collection, and children's gardens and discovery exhibits.
Coney Island developed as a playground for the rich in the early 1900s, but it grew as one of America's first amusement grounds and attracted crowds from all over New York. The Cyclone rollercoaster, built-in 1927, is on the National Register of Historic Places. The 1920 Wonder Wheel and other rides are still operational. Coney Island went into decline in the 1970s but has undergone a renaissance.[128]
Floyd Bennett Field: the first municipal airport in New York City and long-closed for operations, is now part of the National Park System. Many of the historic hangars and runways are still extant. Nature trails and diverse habitats are found within the park, including salt marsh and a restored area of shortgrass prairie that was once widespread on the Hempstead Plains.
Green-Wood Cemetery, founded by the social reformer Henry Evelyn Pierrepont in 1838,[129] is an early rural cemetery. It is the burial ground of many notable New Yorkers.
Prospect Park is a public park in central Brooklyn encompassing 585 acres (2.37 km2).[130] The park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, who created Manhattan's Central Park. Attractions include the Long Meadow, a 90-acre (36 ha) meadow, the Picnic House, which houses offices and a hall that can accommodate parties with up to 175 guests; Litchfield Villa, Prospect Park Zoo, the Boathouse, housing a visitors center and the first urban Audubon Center;[131] Brooklyn's only lake, covering 60 acres (24 ha); the Prospect Park Bandshell that hosts free outdoor concerts in the summertime; and various sports and fitness activities including seven baseball fields. Prospect Park hosts a popular annual Halloween Parade.
Barclays Center was also the home arena for the NHL's New York Islanders full-time from 2015 to 2018, then part-time from 2018 to 2020 (alternating with Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale). The Islanders had originally played at Nassau Coliseum full-time since their inception until 2015 when their lease at the venue expired and the team moved to Barclays Center. In 2020, the team returned to Nassau Coliseum full-time for one season before moving to the UBS Arena in Elmont, New York in 2021.
In the earliest days of organized baseball, Brooklyn teams dominated the new game. The second recorded game of baseball was played near what is now Fort Greene Park on October 24, 1845. Brooklyn's Excelsiors, Atlantics and Eckfords were the leading teams from the mid-1850s through the Civil War, and there were dozens of local teams with neighborhood league play, such as at Mapleton Oval.[133] During this "Brooklyn era", baseball evolved into the modern game: the first fastball, first changeup, first batting average, first triple play, first pro baseball player, first enclosed ballpark, first scorecard, first known African-American team, first black championship game, first road trip, first gambling scandal, and first eight pennant winners were all in or from Brooklyn.[134]
Brooklyn's most famous historical team, the Brooklyn Dodgers, named for "trolley dodgers" played at Ebbets Field.[135] In 1947 Jackie Robinson was hired by the Dodgers as the first African-American player in Major League Baseball in the modern era. In 1955, the Dodgers, perennial National League pennant winners, won the only World Series for Brooklyn against their rival New York Yankees. The event was marked by mass euphoria and celebrations. Just two years later, the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. Walter O'Malley, the team's owner at the time, is still vilified, even by Brooklynites too young to remember the Dodgers as Brooklyn's ball club.
Brooklyn has one of the most active recreational fishing fleets in the United States. In addition to a large private fleet along Jamaica Bay, there is a substantial public fleet within Sheepshead Bay. Species caught include Black Fish, Porgy, Striped Bass, Black Sea Bass, Fluke, and Flounder.[140][141][142]
Each of New York City's five counties, coterminous with each borough, has its own criminal court system and District Attorney, the chief public prosecutor who is directly elected by popular vote. Brooklyn has 16 City Council members, the largest number of any of the five boroughs. The Brooklyn Borough Government includes a borough government president and a court, library, borough government board, head of borough government, deputy head of borough government and deputy borough government president.
Brooklyn has 18 of the city's 59 community districts, each served by an unpaid community board with advisory powers under the city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. Each board has a paid district manager who acts as an interlocutor with city agencies. The Kings County Democratic County Committee (aka the Brooklyn Democratic Party) is the county committee of the Democratic Party in Brooklyn.
In 2024, Republican Donald Trump reached 27% of the vote, and held Kamala Harris at just over 70%, a significant shift from Joe Biden's performance of over 76% in 2020. While still a decisive Democratic victory, this was the strongest Republican support in Brooklyn since 1988, and the largest number of raw Republican votes there since 1972.[144]
As of 2023, four Democrats and one Republican represented Brooklyn in the United States House of Representatives. One congressional district lies entirely within the borough.[147]
Brooklyn offers a wide array of private housing, as well as public housing, which is administered by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). Affordable rental and co-operative housing units throughout the borough were created under the Mitchell–Lama Housing Program.[148]
There were 1,101,441 housing units in 2022[90] at an average density of 15,876 units per square mile (6,130/km2). Public housing administered by NYCHA accounts for more than 100,000 residents in nearly 50,000 units in 2023.[149]
Brooklyn Tech as seen from Ashland Place in Fort GreeneThe Brooklyn College library, part of the original campus laid out by Randolph Evans, now known as "East Quad"Brooklyn Law School's 1994 new classical "Fell Hall" tower, by architect Robert A. M. SternNYU Tandon Wunsch Building
Education in Brooklyn is provided by a vast number of public and private institutions. Non-charter public schools in the borough are managed by the New York City Department of Education,[150] the largest public school system in the United States.
Brooklyn Technical High School, commonly called Brooklyn Tech, a New York City public high school, is the largest specialized high school for science, mathematics, and technology in the United States.[151] Brooklyn Tech opened in 1922. Brooklyn Tech is across the street from Fort Greene Park. This high school was built from 1930 to 1933 at a cost of about $6 million and is 12 stories high. It covers about half of a city block.[152] Brooklyn Tech is noted for its famous alumni[153] (including two Nobel Laureates), its academics, and a large number of graduates attending prestigious universities.
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York (CUNY), and was the first public coeducational liberal arts college in New York City. The college ranked in the top 10 nationally for the second consecutive year in Princeton Review's 2006 guidebook, America's Best Value Colleges. Many of its students are first and second-generation Americans. Founded in 1970, Medgar Evers College is a senior college of the City University of New York. The college offers programs at the baccalaureate and associate degree levels, as well as adult and continuing education classes for central Brooklyn residents, corporations, government agencies, and community organizations. Medgar Evers College is a few blocks east of Prospect Park in Crown Heights.
CUNY's New York City College of Technology (City Tech) of The City University of New York (Downtown Brooklyn/Brooklyn Heights) is the largest public college of technology in New York State and a national model for technological education. Established in 1946, City Tech can trace its roots to 1881 when the Technical Schools of the Metropolitan Museum of Art were renamed the New York Trade School. That institution—which became the Voorhees Technical Institute many decades later—was soon a model for the development of technical and vocational schools worldwide. In 1971, Voorhees was incorporated into City Tech.
SUNY Downstate College of Medicine, founded as the Long Island College Hospital in 1860, is the oldest hospital-based medical school in the United States. The Medical Center comprises the College of Medicine, College of Health Related Professions, College of Nursing, School of Public Health, School of Graduate Studies, and University Hospital of Brooklyn. The Nobel Prize winner Robert F. Furchgott was a member of its faculty. Half of the Medical Center's students are minorities or immigrants. The College of Medicine has the highest percentage of minority students of any medical school in New York State.
Adelphi University, based in Garden City, moved its Manhattan Campus in 2023 to a new location on Livingston Street in Downtown Brooklyn. The move marks a return to Brooklyn for the university, which originated on Adelphi Street with the Adelphi Academy. The facility is shared with St. Francis College, which has created a new campus at 179 Livingston Street.[154]
Brooklyn Law School was founded in 1901 and is notable for its diverse student body. Women and African Americans were enrolled in 1909. According to the Leiter Report, a compendium of law school rankings published by Brian Leiter, Brooklyn Law School places 31st nationally for the quality of students.[155]
Long Island University is a private university headquartered in Brookville on Long Island, with a campus in Downtown Brooklyn with 6,417 undergraduate students. The Brooklyn campus has strong science and medical technology programs, at the graduate and undergraduate levels.
Pratt Institute, in Clinton Hill, is a private college founded in 1887 with programs in engineering, architecture, and the arts. Some buildings in the school's Brooklyn campus are official landmarks. Pratt has over 4700 students, with most at its Brooklyn campus. Graduate programs include a library and information science, architecture, and urban planning. Undergraduate programs include architecture, construction management, writing, critical and visual studies, industrial design and fine arts, totaling over 25 programs in all.
St. Francis College is a Catholic college in Downtown Brooklyn founded in 1859 by Franciscan friars. Over 2,400 students attend the small liberal arts college. St. Francis is considered by The New York Times as one of the more diverse colleges, and was ranked one of the best baccalaureate colleges by Forbes magazine and U.S. News & World Report.[160][161][162]
As an independent system, separate from the New York and Queens public library systems, the Brooklyn Public Library[163] offers thousands of public programs, millions of books, and use of more than 850 free Internet-accessible computers. It also has books and periodicals in all the major languages spoken in Brooklyn, including English, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, Hebrew, and Haitian Creole, as well as French, Yiddish, Hindi, Bengali, Polish, Italian, and Arabic. The Central Library is a landmarked building facing Grand Army Plaza.
There are 58 library branches, placing one within a half-mile of each Brooklyn resident. In addition to its specialized Business Library in Brooklyn Heights, the Library is preparing to construct its new Visual & Performing Arts Library (VPA) in the BAM Cultural District, which will focus on the link between new and emerging arts and technology and house traditional and digital collections. It will provide access and training to arts applications and technologies not widely available to the public. The collections will include the subjects of art, theater, dance, music, film, photography, and architecture. A special archive will house the records and history of Brooklyn's arts communities.
Proposed New York City Subway lines never built include a line along Nostrand or Utica Avenues to Marine Park,[166] as well as a subway line to Spring Creek.[167][168]
In February 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city government would begin a citywide ferry service called NYC Ferry to extend ferry transportation to communities in the city that have been traditionally underserved by public transit.[170][171] The ferry opened in May 2017,[172][173] with the Bay Ridge ferry serving southwestern Brooklyn and the East River Ferry serving northwestern Brooklyn. A third route, the Rockaway ferry, makes one stop in the borough at Brooklyn Army Terminal.[174]
Much of Brooklyn has only named streets, but Park Slope, Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, Bensonhurst, and Borough Park and the other western sections have numbered streets running approximately northwest to southeast, and numbered avenues going approximately northeast to southwest. East of Dahill Road, lettered avenues (like Avenue M) run east and west, and numbered streets have the prefix "East". South of Avenue O, related numbered streets west of Dahill Road use the "West" designation.
This set of numbered streets ranges from West 37th Street to East 108 Street, and the avenues range from A–Z with names substituted for some of them in some neighborhoods (notably Albemarle, Beverley, Cortelyou, Dorchester, Ditmas, Foster, Farragut, Glenwood, Quentin). Numbered streets prefixed by "North" and "South" in Williamsburg, and "Bay", "Beach", "Brighton", "Plumb", "Paerdegat" or "Flatlands" along the southern and southwestern waterfront are loosely based on the old grids of the original towns of Kings County that eventually consolidated to form Brooklyn. These names often reflect the bodies of water or beaches around them, such as Plumb Beach or Paerdegat Basin.
Brooklyn was long a major shipping port, especially at the Brooklyn Army Terminal and Bush Terminal in Sunset Park. Most container ship cargo operations have shifted to the New Jersey side of New York Harbor, while the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook is a focal point for New York's growing cruise industry. The Queen Mary 2, one of the world's largest ocean liners, was designed specifically to fit under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the United States. She makes regular ports of call at the Red Hook terminal on her transatlantic crossings from Southampton, England.[174] The Brooklyn waterfront formerly employed tens of thousands of borough residents and acted as an incubator for industries across the entire city, and the decline of the port exacerbated Brooklyn's decline in the second half of the 20th century.
In February 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city government would begin NYC Ferry to extend ferry transportation to traditionally underserved communities in the city.[170][171] The ferry opened in May 2017,[172][173] offering commuter services from the western shore of Brooklyn to Manhattan via three routes. The East River Ferry serves points in Lower Manhattan, Midtown, Long Island City, and northwestern Brooklyn via its East River route. The South Brooklyn and Rockaway routes serve southwestern Brooklyn before terminating in lower Manhattan. Ferries to Coney Island are also planned.[174]
^Moynihan, Colin. "F.Y.I.", The New York Times, September 19, 1999. Accessed December 17, 2019. "There are well-known names for inhabitants of four boroughs: Manhattanites, Brooklynites, Bronxites, and Staten Islanders. But what are residents of Queens called?"
^"New Area Code Assignments Could Begin 4th Quarter of 2026", New York Department of Public Service, February 13, 2025. Accessed July 6, 2025. "The New York State Public Service Commission (Commission) announced today that residential, business and wireless customers within the existing area codes that serve the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Marble Hill section of the New York City metropolitan area should begin to prepare for the introduction of a new area code — 465 — once the supply of central office codes under the existing area codes exhausts.... To meet the increasing demand for phone numbers, earlier this year, the Commission approved an overlay area code to be added to the current 347/718/917/929 area codes region that serves portions of the New York City metropolitan area."
^Consolidation of the Five-Borough City: 1898, New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Accessed January 18, 2024. "On January 1, 1898, the separate jurisdictions of New York (Manhattan), Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island joined together to form a single metropolis: the City of Greater New York..... Resistance was strongest among residents of Brooklyn, who did not want to see their city’s independent identity smothered by New York and their Republican government swamped by the huge numbers of Democrats in Manhattan. The question was put to a public referendum and in the end, the Greater New York movement won by a razor thin margin – 64,744 votes for consolidation, 64,467 against."
^Sherman, John. "Why Is Brooklyn's Flag So Lame?", Brooklyn Magazine, August 6, 2014. Accessed January 18, 2024. "If you aren’t familiar, Brooklyn has a flag. And it’s a bummer. It’s plain white, first of all, with a sort of wonky blue oval shape at the center. Inside the oval is a bored-looking woman in a yellow robe, carrying a fasces, a symbol of unity. The oval is ringed with a motto, in Dutch, Een Draght Maekt Maght ('Unity Makes Strength'), and the words Borough of Brooklyn."
^Henry Alford (May 1, 2013). "How I Became a Hipster". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 2, 2013. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
^Manten, A. A. (June 19, 2020). "Hoe oud is Breukelen?". Tijdschrift Historische Kring Breukelen. 1983, volume 2: 72. hdl:1874/215105 – via Utrecht University.
^"USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map". Agricultural Research Center, PRISM Climate Group Oregon State University. Archived from the original on February 27, 2014. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
^Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e. the expected highest and lowest temperature readings at any point during the year or given month) calculated based on data at said location from 1981 to 2010.
^Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation. Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy Report, 2002. www.bedc.org. Archived February 1, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
^U.S. Census Bureau (2018). People Reporting Ancestry American Community Survey 1-year estimates. Retrieved from https://censusreporter.org
^U.S. Census Bureau (2014-2018). Asian Alone by Selected Groups American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Retrieved from https://censusreporter.org
^U.S. Census Bureau (2018). Hispanic or Latino Origin by Specific Origin American Community Survey 1-year estimates. Retrieved from https://censusreporter.org
^Act of Incorporation, 1838, Green-Wood Cemetery. Accessed July 6, 2025. "Henry Evelyn Pierrepont (1808-1888) conceived of the idea for Green-Wood Cemetery in the early 1830s, envisioning an area amid the picturesque hills of Brooklyn, to serve those in the New York City area with natural and serene burial space. By 1838, Pierrepont’s vision finally became a reality. On April 18, 1838, The New York State Legislature passed an Act of Incorporation, declaring that 'The Green-Wood Cemetery' was established 'for the purpose of establishing a public burial ground in the City of Brooklyn.'."
^"About Prospect Park". Prospect Park Alliance: Official Web Site of Prospect Park. Prospect Park Alliance. 2008. Retrieved November 29, 2008.
^"Audubon New York". National Audubon Society. 2008. Archived from the original on January 16, 2009. Retrieved November 29, 2008.
Harrington Putnam (1899), "Brooklyn", in Lyman P. Powell (ed.), Historic towns of the middle states, New York: G. P. Putnam's sons, OCLC248109
Ernest Ingersoll (1906), "Greater New York: Brooklyn", Rand, McNally & Co.'s handy guide to New York City, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and other districts included in the enlarged city (20th ed.), Chicago: Rand, McNally, OCLC29277709
Carroll, James T. "Neighbors to the East of the River: Cast of Leaders in the Diocese of Brooklyn, 1920–1960." Catholic Historical Review 108.2 (2022): 267–286.
Curran, Winifred. "Gentrification and the nature of work: exploring the links in Williamsburg, Brooklyn." Environment And Planning A. 36 (2004): 1243–1258.
Curran, Winifred. "'From the Frying Pan to the Oven': Gentrification and the Experience of Industrial Displacement in Williamsburg, Brooklyn." Urban Studies (2007) 44#8 pp: 1427–1440.
Edwards, Maurice. How music grew in Brooklyn: a biography of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra (Scarecrow Press, 2006).
Gallagher, John J. Battle Of Brooklyn 1776 (Da Capo Press, 2009) online.
Golenbock, Peter. Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers (Courier, 2010) online
Haw, Richard. "American History/American Memory: Reevaluating Walt Whitman's Relationship with the Brooklyn Bridge." Journal of American Studies 38.1 (2004): 1-22.
Henke, Holger, The West Indian Americans (Greenwood Press: 2001).
Hughes, Evan. Literary Brooklyn: The writers of Brooklyn and the story of American city life (Holt, 2011).
Kanakamedala, Prithi. Brooklynites: The Remarkable Story of the Free Black Communities that Shaped a Borough (Washington Mews Books/NYU Press, 2024)
Kranzler, George. Hasidic Williamsburg: A contemporary American Hasidic community (Jason Aronson, 1995).
Kurland, Gerald. Seth Low: The Reformer in an Urban and Industrial Age (Ardent Media, 1971); he was mayor of Brooklyn from 1881 to 1885.
Livingston, E. H. President Lincoln's Third Largest City: Brooklyn and The Civil War (1994)
McCullough, David W., and Jim Kalett. Brooklyn...and How It Got That Way (1983); guide to neighborhoods; many photos
McCullough, David. The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge (2001)
McNamara, Patrick. " 'Catholic Journalism With Its Sleeves Rolled Up': Patrick F. Scanlan and the Brooklyn Tablet, 1917-1968." US Catholic Historian 25.3 (2007): 87–107. excerpt
Ment, David. The Shaping of a City: A Brief History of Brooklyn (1979)
Moore, Deborah Dash. At Home in America: Second Generation New York Jews (Columbia University Press, 1981).
Podair, Jerald E. The Strike that Changed New York: Blacks, Whites, and the Ocean Hill-Brownsville Crisis (Yale University Press, 2003). online
Pritchett, Wendell E. Brownsville, Brooklyn: Blacks, Jews, and the Changing Face of the Ghetto (University of Chicago Press, 2002) online.
Robbins, Michael W., ed. Brooklyn: A State of Mind. (Workman Publishing, 2001).
Shepard, Benjamin Heim / Noonan, Mark J.: Brooklyn Tides. The Fall and Rise of a Global Borough (transcript Verlag, 2018)
Smith, Betty. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943) a semi-autobiographical novel set in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn, from 1902 to 1919.
Snyder-Grenier, Ellen M. Brooklyn!: An Illustrated History (Temple University Press, 2004)
Sparr, Arnold. "Looking for Rosie: Women Defense Workers in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, 1942-1946." New York History 81.3 (2000): 313–340. online
Trachtenberg, Alan. Brooklyn Bridge: Fact and Symbol (University of Chicago Press, 1979). online dissertation version
Warf, Barney. "The reconstruction of social ecology and neighborhood change in Brooklyn." Environment and Planning D (1990) 8#1 pp: 73–96.
Weld, Ralph Foster. Brooklyn is America (Columbia University Press, 1950). online
Wellman, Judith. Brooklyn's Promised Land: The Free Black Community of Weeksville, New York (2014)
Wilder, Craig Steven. A Covenant with Color: Race and Social Power in Brooklyn 1636–1990 (Columbia University Press, 2013)
Clockwise from top: a view of shops on Main Street, monument commemorating the village's maritime past, Port Jefferson Village Hall, A ferry passes a local power plant en route to Bridgeport, Connecticut, Port Jefferson Free Library
Port Jefferson was first settled in the 17th century and remained a rural community until its development as an active shipbuilding center in the mid-19th century. The village has since transitioned to a tourist-based economy. The community's port remains active as the terminus of the Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Ferry – one of two commercial ferry lines between Long Island and Connecticut – and is supplemented by the terminus of the Long Island Rail Road's Port Jefferson Branch. It is also the center of the Greater Port Jefferson region of northwestern Brookhaven, serving as the cultural, commercial and transportation hub of the neighboring Port Jefferson Station, Belle Terre, Mount Sinai, Miller Place, Poquott, and the Setaukets.
c.1682 home of John Roe, the first settler in lower Port Jefferson
The original settlers of the Town of Brookhaven, based in the neighboring hamlet of Setauket, bought a tract of land from the Setalcott Indians in 1655. The deed included the area of contemporary Port Jefferson along with all other lands along the North Shore from the Nissequogue River eastward to Mount Misery Point.[4]
Port Jefferson's original name was Sowaysset, a Native American term for either "place of small pines" or "where water opens.[5]
The first known home within the present village boundaries was erected in the early 1660s by Captain John Scott, an important leader in Long Island's early history. This house, named Egerton, was a grand abode on the western end of Mount Sinai Harbor at Mount Misery Neck.[6] The first settler in Port Jefferson's current downtown was an Irish Protestant shoemaker from Queens named John Roe, who built his still-standing home in 1682. It remained a small community of five homes through the 18th century, and was renamed to "Drowned Meadow" in 1682.[4]
Local lore has it that the pirate Captain Kidd rendezvoused in the harbor on his way to bury treasure at Gardiners Island.[7] Another legend is that: during the Revolutionary War, naval commander John Paul Jones had a ship fitted here.[7] However, there is no factual support for these assertions, and the historical works quoted do not present them as definitive facts. John Paul Jones's career in particular is well documented, and there are no accounts of him visiting the village, which was under British control during the time he served as a commanding officer.
In 1797, when the entire town had five houses, its first shipyard was built. By 1825, several shipbuilding firms were located there, which attracted new residents and commerce.[7]
During the War of 1812, British interference on Long Island Sound upset local shipping routes. On one occasion, two British warships, the frigate HMS Pomone and brig HMS Despatch sent their boats into the harbor under cover of darkness, capturing seven sloops.[8] To protect local interests, a small fortress was set up on the west side of Port Jefferson Harbor.[9]
In 1836 the local leadership initiated the community's transition from a "swampish hamlet" to a busy port town. The 22 acres of the harborfront, which flooded at high tide, were brought to a stable elevation with the construction of a causeway. The village changed its name from "Drowned Meadow" to "Port Jefferson", in honor of Thomas Jefferson.[10][11]
Mather Shipyard in 1884
Numerous shipyards developed along Port Jefferson's harbor, and the village's shipbuilding industry became the largest in Suffolk County. Two whaling vessels were built for New Bedford at Port Jefferson in 1877 (ship Horatio and bark Fleetwing), and a Port Jefferson-built schooner (La Ninfa) was later converted into a whaling vessel at San Francisco.[12][13] Port Jefferson's primary role as a port in the 19th century was to build and support vessels engaged in the coastal freighting trades. Many of Port Jefferson's remaining homes from this period were owned by shipbuilders and captains. This includes the Mather House Museum, a mid-19th century home once owned by the Mather shipbuilding family that now serves as the center of a museum complex and headquarters for the Historical Society of Greater Port Jefferson.
Postcard of Hotel Square, corner of Main and East Main, with labels displaying the Townsend House hotel and the village's first post office in the late 19th century
P. T. Barnum, the famous circus owner, owned a tract of land which ran through the village. His intention was to make Port Jefferson the home base for his circus, founded in 1871. The residents blocked his plans, and he eventually sold his land. Barnum Avenue now runs through the area that was once Barnum's.[14][15]
The section of town at the intersection of the two streets, then known as Hotel Square, became an active center of Port Jefferson's early tourism industry in the mid-19th century, with a variety of hotels and restaurants. This included the John Roe house, which was converted into the Townsend House hotel. The village's first post office was added to this intersection in 1855.[16]
With the 1923 sale of the Bayles Shipyard to the Standard Oil Company and demolition of all but two of its structures, Port Jefferson's shipbuilding industry came to a close. This resulted in an economic downturn, and the closing of many of the grand hotels in Hotel Square, as tourism declined along with the industry. Port Jefferson Harbor then became a depot for the oil transportation and gravel industries, and, since the 1940s, the site of a Long Island Lighting Companycoal-fired power plant. The harbor also had activity as a rum-running center during the Prohibition era. Decades later, Port Jefferson's economy had recovered, with tourism as its base.
Danfords Hotel & MarinaPort Jefferson Village Center, during the final phase of Harborfront Park's construction
The village of Port Jefferson was incorporated in 1963.[17] The revitalization of lower Port Jefferson soon followed as local tourism brought increased revenues and the village adjusted itself to its new economic role. One such transformation was the 1976 redevelopment of the defunct Mather & Jones Shipyard into a shop-lined promenade known as Chandler Square.
A result of the transition is new public access to much of the waterfront, as several industrial lots had previously stood in the way. Danfords Hotel and Marina was one major waterfront project, which integrated several new and historical structures into a luxury hotel. Danfords includes a commercial marina and walkable pier, marking an aspect of the harbor's transformation from industrial to recreational use.
Harborfront Park, a project completed in 2004, similarly transitioned the site of a shipyard turned Mobil Oil terminal into a public park with picnic grounds, a seasonal ice skating rink and a promenade.[18] Concurrent to the park's construction was the rebuilding of a former shipyard warehouse into the Port Jefferson Village Center, a new public space for events and recreation.
Boats in Port Jefferson HarborAn aerial view of Port Jefferson in 2018.
The village's commerce is divided into two centers that lie 1-mile (1.6 km) apart along Main Street and at differing elevations. These are known as Lower Port Jefferson and Upper Port Jefferson, respectively the waterfront and the railroad station sections of town. The first is currently the center of tourism, while the latter is undergoing plans for revitalization to the economic viability of its historic self. Further from Main Street, the remainder of Port Jefferson consists of several residential neighborhoods defined by the hills on which they sit. In the northeastern corner of the village is the neighborhood of Harbor Hills. This neighborhood occupies the western edge of Mount Sinai Harbor and contains the Port Jefferson Country Club at Harbor Hills. Brick Hill is the neighborhood directly west of the Lower Port Jefferson commercial center and was first developed by the noted circus owner P. T. Barnum. West of Upper Port Jefferson is Cedar Hill, which is topped by the c. 1859 Cedar Hill Cemetery where residents formerly would bask while enjoying views over the village from its highest point.
Within Port Jefferson is Port Jefferson Harbor, a natural deepwater harbor. Setauket Harbor branches off to the west from the harbor. One notable geographic feature is Pirate's Cove, a small cove dredged in the early 20th century by the Seaboard Dredging Company. The original name was Seaboard Hole, but it was changed for the sake of appealing to tourists, and several large sand dunes artificially created by the dredging can also be found here. The dunes, nearby coast, and surrounding wildlands are within the publicly-accessible McAllister County Park[20], with limited parking available on Anchorage Road. Foot traffic is welcome, bicycles are prohibited, and sections of the park are closed to visitors during nesting season for the endangered Piping Plover.
There were 3,090 households, out of which 27.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.2% were married couples living together, 8.0% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.8% had a male household with no wife present, and 36.1% were non-families. Of all households, 28.3% were made up of individuals living alone, and 9.0% consisted of people living alone who were 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 2.96.[22]
The age breakdown consisted of 20.7% under the age of 18, 6.9% from 18 to 24, 24.2% from 25 to 44, 31.2% from 45 to 64, and 16.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43.6 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.1 males.
In the 2008–2012 American Community Survey, the median income for a household in the village was $108,060 and the median income for a family was $138,984. The per capita income for the village was $51,937. Of the population, 6.5% were below the poverty threshold.
Theatre Three is based in the Athena Hall, built c. 1874Lecture night at the Baptist Church, Port Jefferson, 1912 painting by William Moore Davis
Port Jefferson is home to Theatre Three, a non-profit theatre company founded in 1969. Each year Theatre Three stages four musicals and two plays and additionally performs A Christmas Carol during the annual Dickens Festival. Theatre Three is held in Athena Hall, a performance space dating to 1874. The village was home to two notable landscape painters in the late 19th century, William Moore Davis and Leon Foster Jones. Both artists produced numerous depictions of Port Jefferson and its harbor. They were the subject of a 1993 art exhibition by the Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages in Stony Brook.
Port Jefferson has been home to the annual Port Jefferson Village Dickens Festival every year since 1996. The festival celebrates the works and times of English novelist Charles Dickens. It takes place during a weekend early in December and typically includes many events and occurrences, such as the regular sighting of people who dress in 19th century clothing, house tours, the reading of winter-related poetry, caroling, and booths set up by local businesses. Students from the Port Jefferson Middle School and High School submit poetry and art that are used in the festival. Free concerts of seasonal music by various ensembles are presented at the Methodist church. Many small festivals are held during the summer, showcasing music and crafts. Each Fourth of July sees a substantial parade on Main Street. The village also hosts an annual outdoor concert series and film screenings, both of which currently take place in Harborfront Park throughout July and August. In keeping with its seafaring heritage, Port Jefferson hosts its own annual boat race series known as the Village Cup Regatta, with proceeds benefiting cancer research.
Port Jefferson Middle School and High School currently share the same building located on 350 Old Post Road. The Middle School (7th and 8th grade only) was previously located at 118 Spring Street. That building currently houses the Jefferson Academic Center,[27] a vocational school operated by Eastern Suffolk BOCES.[28]
The village additionally serves as the eastern terminus for the Long Island Rail Road's Port Jefferson Branch. The branch consists of a diesel train that connects to the electrified Main Line at Huntington station. During the full run it continues toward the western terminus of Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan or to Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn. The average commute from Port Jefferson to Manhattan via the Long Island Rail Road takes approximately 2 hours. Train service to New York City first reached Port Jefferson in 1873. The ferry terminal and train station are approximately 1-mile (1.6 km) apart. In March 2014, mayor Margot Garant announced interest in establishing a future shuttle to link the two transportation networks as well as their respective sections of town, lower and upper Port Jefferson.[31][better source needed]
Port Jefferson's main street forms a section of New York State Route 25A, a scenic and historic route through Long Island's North Shore from the New York City borough of Queens eastward to Calverton. Just southeast of the village is the eastern terminus of New York State Route 347, a multilane divided highway that connects to the Northern State Parkway in Hauppauge. New York State Route 112, an important north–south route, begins just south of the village and runs to Patchogue, with a dedicated bicycle lane along much of the route.
Foghat owned a recording studio called Boogie Motel on Main Street; their 1979 album Boogie Motel was recorded there.[48]
The 1989 black comedy film She-Devil was shot on location in Port Jefferson at 161 Cliff Road. The pink-colored 30-bedroom mansion belonged to Bulgarian operetta singer and actress Nadya Nozharova, also known as Countess Nadya de Navarro Farber, who died in 2014. The house was built in 1870, and was almost 19,000 sq ft (1,800 m2). The countess lived in the house for over 40 years. The house was demolished in 2017.[49]
In season two of Netflix's House of Cards there are ongoing negotiations regarding the financing of a bridge from Port Jefferson to Milford, Connecticut.[50] It is referred to in the series as the "Port Jefferson Bridge". The idea is similar to many proposals that have been made over the years, collectively called the Long Island Sound link, including one project proposed from Port Jefferson to Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Port Jefferson's Main Street and East Main Street were featured as part of NPR's "Mapping Main Street" project in spring 2010.[51]
The 2015 film True Story was filmed in part on the docks behind Danford's Hotel.[52][53]
^Starbuck, Alexander, History of the American Whale Fishery, Originally Part 4 of the Report of the U.S. Commission on Fish and Fisheries, Washington, DC, 1878, Reprinted by Castle Books, Secaucus, New Jersey, 1989
^Hegarty, Reginald B., Returns of Whaling Vessels Sailing From American Ports, Old Dartmouth Historical Society, New Bedford, 1959
^"History". The Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Steamboat Company. Retrieved April 18, 2021.
^"A Look at the Fleet". The Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Steamboat Company. Retrieved April 18, 2021.
^Maggio, Robert (2013). Images of America:Port Jefferson. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 65–70. ISBN978-0738598178.
^Suffolk County Transit (December 3, 2023). "Route 51"(PDF). Retrieved August 25, 2024.
^Suffolk County Transit (December 3, 2023). "Route 53"(PDF). Retrieved August 25, 2024.
^Suffolk County Transit (December 3, 2023). "Route 55"(PDF). Retrieved August 25, 2024.
^Staff. "Walter Berndt, Drew Comic Strip Smitty, Which Ran 50 Years", The New York Times, August 15, 1979. Accessed June 5, 2017. "Walter Berndt, the cartoonist who created the comic strip Smitty, which was syndicated in hundreds of newspapers for more than 50 years, died Monday in Mather Memorial Hospital in Port Jefferson, L.I. He was 79 years old and had lived in Port Jefferson since 1937."
^Nash, Eric. "John Buscema, 74, Who Drew Classic Comic Book Characters", The New York Times, January 28, 2002. Accessed June 5, 2017. "John Buscema, a comic book artist known for his robust renditions of characters like the Silver Surfer and Conan the Barbarian, died on Jan. 10. He was 74 and lived in Port Jefferson, N.Y."
^"Vic Carapazza". Baseball-Reference.Com. Retrieved October 4, 2012.
^"Les Goodman". databaseFootball.com. Archived from the original on May 31, 2012. Retrieved October 3, 2012.
^Liepa, Bob. "Greatest Athletes #20: Edwards, Creighton forever linked", The Suffolk Times, July 29, 2011. Accessed June 5, 2017. "Shedrick said Edwards was better than any of the players among Greenport’s opponents, which included future NBA players Toby Knight of Port Jefferson and Mitch Kupchack of Brentwood."
^Goldaper, Sam. "Irish Down St. John's On 2 Foul Shots, 68‐67", The New York Times, February 14, 1975. Accessed June 5, 2017. "Toby Knight, the powerfully built Notre Dame sophomore from Port Jefferson, L.I., stole the spotlight that was supposed to belong to Adrian Dantley last night at Madison Square Garden."
Fairfield County is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is the most populous county in the state and was also its fastest-growing from 2010 to 2020. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 957,419,[1] representing 26.6% of Connecticut's overall population. The closest to the center of the New York metropolitan area, the county contains four of the state's seven largest cities—Bridgeport (first), Stamford (second), Norwalk (sixth) and Danbury (seventh)—whose combined population of 433,368 is nearly half the county's total population.
As is the case with all eight of Connecticut's counties, there is no county government and no county seat. As an area, it is only a geographical point of reference. In Connecticut, the cities and towns are responsible for all local governmental activities including fire and rescue, schools, and snow removal; in a few cases, neighboring towns will share certain resources. The last county seat was Bridgeport, which had served this role from 1853 until 1960.[4] On June 6, 2022, the U.S. Census Bureau formally recognized Connecticut's nine councils of governments as county equivalents instead of the state's eight counties. Connecticut's eight historical counties continue to exist in name only, and are no longer considered for statistical purposes.[5]
Fairfield County's Gold Coast helped rank it sixth in the U.S. in per-capita personal income by the Bureau of Economic Analysis in 2005,[6] contributing substantially to Connecticut being one of the most affluent states in the U.S.[7] Other communities are more densely populated and economically diverse than the affluent areas for which the county is better known.
The Dutch explorer Adriaen Block explored coastal Connecticut in the Spring and early Summer of 1614 in the North America-built vessel Onrust. The first European settlers of the county, however, were Puritans and Congregationalists from England. Roger Ludlow (1590–1664), one of the founders of the Colony of Connecticut, helped to purchase and charter the towns of Fairfield (1639) and Norwalk (purchased 1640, chartered as a town in 1651).[9] Ludlow is credited as having chosen the name Fairfield. Fairfield is a descriptive name referring to the beauty of its fields.[10] The town of Stratford was settled in 1639 as well by Adam Blakeman (1596–1665). William Beardsley (1605–1661) was also one of the first settlers of Stratford in 1639.
Fairfield County was established by an act of the Connecticut General Court in Hartford along with Hartford County, New Haven County, and New London County; which were the first four Connecticut counties, on May 10, 1666. From transcriptions of the Connecticut Colonial Records for that day:
This Court orders that from the east bounds of Stratford
to ye bounds of Rye shalbe for future one County wch
shalbe called the County of Fairfield. And it is ordered
that the County Court shalbe held at Fairfield on the second
Tuesday in March and the first Tuesday of November
The original Fairfield County consisted of the towns of Rye, Greenwich, Stamford, Norwalk, Fairfield, and Stratford. In 1673, the town of Woodbury was incorporated and added to Fairfield County. In 1683, New York and Connecticut reached a final agreement regarding their common border. This resulted in the cession of the town of Rye and all claims to the Oblong to New York. From the late 17th to early 18th centuries, several new towns were incorporated in western Connecticut and added to Fairfield County, namely Danbury (1687), Ridgefield (1709), Newtown (1711), and New Fairfield (1740). In 1751, Litchfield County was constituted, taking over the town of Woodbury. The final boundary adjustment to Fairfield County occurred in 1788 when the town of Brookfield was incorporated from parts of Newtown, Danbury, and New Milford, with Fairfield County gaining territory from Litchfield County.
Other early county inhabitants include:
Joseph Hawley (born 1603 in England; died 1690), who had emigrated to America in 1629 and then settled in Stratford in 1650, later becoming Stratford's first town clerk. Joseph Hawley's son Ephraim built the Ephraim Hawley House in 1683 in Trumbull that is still standing and serves as a private residence.
Thomas Fitch (c. 1700–1774), from Norwalk, was a governor of the Colony of Connecticut.
During the Revolutionary War, Connecticut's prodigious agricultural output led to it being known informally as "the Provisions State".[12] In the spring of 1777, the British Commander-in-Chief, North AmericaGeneral William Howe, in New York City, ordered William Tryon to interrupt the flow of supplies from Connecticut that were reaching the Continental Army. Tryon and Henry Duncan led a fleet of 26 ships carrying 2,000 men to Westport's Compo Beach to raid Continental Army supply depots in Danbury on April 22, 1777. American Major GeneralDavid Wooster (1710–1777), who was born in Stratford, was in charge of the stores at Danbury and defended them with a force of only 700 troops. Two years later during a British raid on Greenwich on February 26, 1779 GeneralIsrael Putnam, who had stayed at Knapp's Tavern the previous night, rode away on his horse to warn the people of Stamford. Putnam was shot at by the British raiders but was able to escape. The hat he was wearing with a musket ball hole in it is on display at Knapp's Tavern in Greenwich (which is commonly, albeit somewhat erroneously, called Putnam's cottage).[13] In the summer of 1779, General William Tryon sought to punish Americans by attacking civilian targets in coastal Connecticut with a force of about 2,600 British troops. New Haven was raided on July 5, Fairfield was raided on the 7th and burned. Norwalk was raided on July 10 and burned on the 11th. Norwalk militia leader Captain Stephen Betts put up resistance to the invaders, but was overwhelmed by the powerful British raiders and was forced to retreat.
David Sherman Boardman (1786–1864) was a prominent early lawyer and judge in this and neighboring Litchfield County.
On October 7, 1801, Neheemiah Dodge and other members of the Danbury Baptist Association wrote a letter to then-president Thomas Jefferson expressing their concern that as Baptists they may not be able to express full religious liberty in the state of Connecticut whose "ancient charter" was adopted before the establishment of a Baptist church in the state. Jefferson replied in a letter to Dodge and the other members of the Danbury church on January 1, 1802, in which he stated that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution provided "a wall of separation between church and State" that protected them.[14]
An agricultural region, the first railroad was the Housatonic Railroad, construction started 1836 and ended 1840, extending from Bridgeport to New Milford originally, connecting Litchfield County crops to the port in Bridgeport, by passing New York City.[15] The New York and New Haven railroad along the county's coast was constructed in the late 1840s, which started in New York City and ended in New Haven, connecting Bridgeport, Stamford, Norwalk and all the towns on the coast.[16]
In 1851, the county seat of Fairfield County was moved from the town of Fairfield to the newly founded neighboring city of Bridgeport. This was due to its growing population and industry as the old courthouse erected 1794 was no longer adequate.[17] The first hospital in the county, and the 3rd hospital in Connecticut behind Hartford and New Haven Hospitals, Bridgeport Hospital was founded in 1884 along with Fairfield County's first nursing school. It would be soon followed by Danbury Hospital (1885), Norwalk Hospital (1893),[18]Stamford Hospital (1896) [19] Greenwich Hospital (1903),[20]St. Vincent's Hospital in Bridgeport (1903), and Park City Hospital in Bridgeport (1926), which closed in 1993.[21][22][23]
By 1900, the largest cities in the county were Bridgeport, Norwalk, Danbury, Stamford and Greenwich.[24] By 1905, Bridgeport had become the principle manufacturing center in the state, and one of the major manufacturers in the New England region behind Boston, Providence, and Worcester, with $44,586,519 total worth of products manufactured without adjusting to today's money.[25] Stamford and Greenwich had become popular resort towns for New York City's wealthy.[26]
Connecticut in 1905 was 11th in the United States terms of industrial goods produced, and Fairfield County contained the city with the most total worth of products made, Bridgeport. One-fifth of Connecticut's population was employed in manufacturing, the state's largest industry which generated most of its wealth. Bridgeport in 1905 produced 20% of America's corsets. The 2nd largest city in Connecticut behind New Haven by 1910, Bridgeport's population grew by 50,000 people during the first 20 months of US involvement during the First World War, producing 50% of Allied ammunition during that time.[27] Bridgeport by 1920 had a population of 143,555 people, then the 44th largest US city. Danbury, in northern Fairfield County, was known as the "Hat City", producing 20% of America's hats, until the industry began to decline in the 1920s. Stamford (population 40,067 in 1920), was known as the "Lock City", as the home of the Yale and Towne Lock Manufacturing Company.[16][28][29][30] Bridgeport, nicknamed "Park City" had in 1930 over 500 factories within its borders. Bridgeport Machines, Inc., a milling machine manufacturer, was founded in Bridgeport in 1938, as well as Hubbell Incorporated in the 1890s, these are two examples, various companies were headquartered in Bridgeport, such as Warnerco, ACME Shear, Westinghouse subsidiary Bryant Electric among others, and others such as Remington Arms, General Electric, Singer Sewing Machines, Sikorsky Aircraft, Carpenter Steel, and countless others, had large scale manufacturing complexes there.[31]
Most of the county remained agricultural. Westport in the 1920s was a bohemian summer artist colony, and was home to famous artists, writers, and painters, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, who spent a summer in town. The Cos Cob art colony flourished from the late 1800s to the 1920s.[32][33]
At the height of its influence in the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan had a distinct presence in the county and county politics. The group was most active in Darien, but had small chapters in Norwalk, Stamford, and Bridgeport.[34] The Klan has since disappeared from the county.
The county's first institution of higher learning was Western Connecticut State University, founded in Danbury in 1903 (known by its acronym, WCSU),[35] followed by the University of Bridgeport in 1927, Fairfield University in neighboring Fairfield in 1947 and Sacred Heart University.[36]
Nearly one-third of Fairfield County's population lived within Bridgeport's city limits in 1950, 31.5%. The city began to decline in population as families moved into nearby suburbs, such as Fairfield, leading to widespread residential development. Bridgeport slowly began to loose jobs and large corporations moved into southern states or outside the country. The city gained a reputation for having an aging industrial image, what New York Times articles described as a smokestack filled, aging view of the city from the highway.[37][38] The Connecticut Turnpike (Interstate 95) was built in the mid-1950s along the coast, joining the scenic Merrit Parkway, built in the late 1930s to alleviate traffic on the Post Road, and built further inland away from population centers.[39] Towns such as Westport, Darien, New Canaan, Stamford, and Greenwich became New York City suburbs, forming the Connecticut Gold Coast,[40][41]
Fairfield County, along with all other Connecticut counties, was abolished as a governmental agency in accord with state legislation that took effect October 1, 1960.[42] The first enclosed shopping malls in Fairfield County were Trumbull Shopping Park (1963), in the bedroom community of Trumbull just outside Bridgeport, the now gone Lafayette Shopping Park (1965) in Bridgeport,[37] replaced downtown blocks that were demolished as part of the city's urban renewal, Danbury Fair Mall (1986) on the former fairgrounds of the annual Danbury Fair,[43]Hawley Lane Mallin Trumbull (1971) and the Stamford Town Center (1982) as part of the urban renewal project in downtown Stamford.[44]
Stamford, Connecticut, is an example of edge cityurbanization. Stamford in the 1960s was a residential suburb of New York City, with a few industries and research laboratories, but of Stamford's downtown was razed and rebuilt it with modern skyscrapers, and several major corporations moved their headquarters to Stamford, creating one of the largest corporate concentrations in the United States.[16] Originally a more moderate plan, entire downtown blocks and streets were demolished in slow phases and replaced with office towers, residential towers and the Stamford Town Center shopping mall courtesy of the F.D. Rich Company, which was hired by the city to redevelop what was described as the aging, deteriorating downtown, throughout the 60s, 70s and early 80s.[45][43] Stamford's population grew from 92,713 in 1960 to 135,470 people in 2020, making it the 2nd largest city in Connecticut in 2022 (behind Bridgeport), surpassing New Haven.[46][47]
Candlewood Lake in the northern part of the county in the Appalachian Mountains, near the Taconics and BerkshiresRings End Bridge, in DarienHuntington State ParkView from the top of Webb Mountain in Monroe
According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 837 square miles (2,170 km2), of which 625 square miles (1,620 km2) is land and 212 square miles (550 km2) (25.3%) is water.[48]
The terrain of the county trends from flat near the coast to hilly and higher near its northern extremity. The highest elevation is 1,290 feet (390 m) above sea level along the New York state line south of Branch Hill in the Town of Sherman; the lowest point is sea level itself.
The section of the Taconic Mountains range that runs through Greenwich and North Stamford of Fairfield County is also the part of the Appalachians that is closest to the coast out of the entire Appalachian Mountains.
The agreed 1684 territorial limits of the county are defined as 20 miles (32 km) east of New York's Hudson River, which extends into Long Island Sound with a southerly limit of halfway to Long Island, New York. The eastern limit is mostly a natural border defined as the halfway point of the Housatonic River with New Haven County with the exception of several islands belonging wholly to Stratford. The depth of the Sound varies between 60 and 120 feet (37 m).
As of the census of 2000, there were 882,567 people, 324,232 households, and 228,259 families residing in the county. The population density was 1,410 inhabitants per square mile (540/km2). There were 339,466 housing units at an average density of 542 per square mile (209/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 79.31% White, 10.01% Black or African American, 0.20% Native American, 3.25% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 4.70% from other races, and 2.49% from two or more races. 11.88% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 17.6% were of Italian, 12.4% Irish, 6.5% German and 6.4% English ancestry.
In 2010, 66.2% of Fairfield County's population was non-Hispanic whites and 10.8% of the population was black. Asians were 4.6% of the population. Hispanics now constituted 16.9% of the population.[64]
As of 2000, 76.2% spoke English, 11.0% Spanish, 2.0% Portuguese, 1.7% Italian and 1.1% French as their first language. Some of the last group were Haitians, although other Haitians would identify Haitian Creole as their first language.
There were 324,232 households, out of which 34.20% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.50% were married couples living together, 11.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.60% were non-families. 24.00% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.40% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.67 and the average family size was 3.18.
In the county, the population was spread out, with 25.60% under the age of 18, 7.00% from 18 to 24, 30.90% from 25 to 44, 23.30% from 45 to 64, and 13.30% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.40 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.60 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $65,249, and the median income for a family was $77,690. Males had a median income of $51,996 versus $37,108 for females. The per capita income for the county was $38,350. About 5.00% of families and 6.90% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.30% of those under age 18 and 6.60% of those age 65 or over.
As of the 2010 United States census, there were 916,829 people, 335,545 households, and 232,896 families residing in the county.[65] The population density was 1,467.2 inhabitants per square mile (566.5/km2). There were 361,221 housing units at an average density of 578.1 per square mile (223.2/km2).[66] The racial makeup of the county was 74.8% white, 10.8% black or African American, 4.6% Asian, 0.3% American Indian, 6.8% from other races, and 2.6% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 16.9% of the population.[65] In terms of ancestry, 18.1% were Italian, 15.9% were Irish, 9.8% were German, 8.7% were English, 5.5% were Polish, and 2.7% were American.[67]
Of the 335,545 households, 36.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.1% were married couples living together, 12.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 30.6% were non-families, and 24.9% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.68 and the average family size was 3.21. The median age was 39.5 years.[65]
The median income for a household in the county was $81,268 and the median income for a family was $100,593. Males had a median income of $70,187 versus $50,038 for females. The per capita income for the county was $48,295. About 5.6% of families and 8.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.4% of those under age 18 and 6.4% of those age 65 or over.[68]
Data is from the 2007–2011 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, ACS Demographic and Housing Estimates, "Race alone or in combination with one or more other races."[71]
One Stamford Forum, the global headquarters of Purdue Pharma
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, corporations began moving their headquarters to Fairfield County from Manhattan; Thomas J. Lueck of The New York Times said that the trend "permanently decentralized big business in the New York region." During the 1980s many buyouts and reorganizations and an economic recession lead to companies vacating much of the suburban office space in Fairfield County. In 1992 Fairfield County had the headquarters of over 25 major multinational corporations, giving it the third largest concentration of those companies in the United States after New York City and Chicago.[72]
As of 1960, counties in Connecticut do not have any associated county government structure. Thus Fairfield County is only a geographical point of reference. All municipal services are provided by the towns, who sometimes will share certain resources through regionalization. In order to address issues concerning more than one town, several regional agencies that help coordinate the towns for infrastructure, land use, and economic development concerns have been established. Within the geographical area of Fairfield County, the regional agencies are:
Several former county municipal buildings are used by other state or local agencies, including:
The Fairfield County Jail in Bridgeport on the corner of North Avenue and Madison Avenue, still actively used to house prisoners.
The Fairfield County Court Houses in Bridgeport and Danbury which served the county's judicial needs and housed county deputy sheriff's until December 2000. The court houses are still marked "Fairfield County Court House".
Law enforcement within the geographic area of the county is provided by the respective town police departments, whereas in other states in the region such as New York and Vermont law enforcement would be provided by the local county sheriff's department. In the less dense areas, such as Sherman, law enforcement is primarily provided by the Connecticut State Police. Prior to 2000, a County Sheriff's Department existed for the purpose of executing judicial warrants, prisoner transport, court security, Bailiff, and county and state executions. These responsibilities have now been taken over by the Connecticut State Marshal System.
Some municipalities in the county still maintain a sheriff's department to fill the void of the abolishment of the county sheriff's department, such as the City of Shelton which has established the Shelton Sheriff's Department to carry out warrants in the city.
The geographic area of the county is served by the three separate judicial districts: Danbury, Stamford-Norwalk, and Fairfield. Each judicial district has a superior court located, respectively, in Danbury, Stamford, and Bridgeport. Each judicial district has one or more geographical area courts ("GA"'s), subdivisions of the judicial districts that handle lesser cases such as criminal misdemeanors, small claims, traffic violations, and other civil actions.
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2022)
Education in the county is usually provided by the town governments. The exceptions are the towns of Redding and Easton at the secondary level, as those two joined to form a regional secondary school district (Region 9).
Fairfield County has a low crime index of 2050.2 (per 100,000 citizens) as well as a murder closure rate of over 70%.[78] Several Governmental agencies, as well as private security contractors, have made note of Fairfield's low crime rates and the county currently has 6 cities and towns with a percentile safety index of 90% or higher compared to the rest of the continental United States (based on violent and property crimes).[79]
As with neighboring Westchester County, Fairfield County was generally a Republican stronghold for much of the 20th century. Urban municipalities such as Stamford, Norwalk and Bridgeport trended Democratic, while the suburban and rural enclaves tended to lean Republican. However, during the 1990s, these latter areas began to increasingly shift towards Democratic candidates. Today, only Hartford County has a higher concentration of Democratic voters. The last time the county voted for a Republican presidential candidate was in 1992 for George H.W. Bush.
United States presidential election results for Fairfield County, Connecticut[80]
With Interstate 95 and the Merritt Parkway increasingly clogged with traffic, state officials are looking toward mass transit to ease the county's major thoroughfares' traffic burden.
New office buildings are being concentrated near railroad stations in Stamford, Bridgeport and other municipalities in the county to allow for more rail commuting. Proximity to Stamford's Metro-North train station was cited by the Royal Bank of Scotland as a key reason for locating its new U.S. headquarters building in downtown Stamford; construction on the office tower started in late 2006.
Commuter Rail is perhaps Fairfield County's most important transportation artery, as it allows its residents an efficient ride to Grand Central Terminal in New York City. Service is provided on Metro-North's New Haven Line, and every town on the shoreline has at least one station. Connecting lines bring service to New Canaan from Stamford on the New Canaan Branch, and to Danbury from South Norwalk on the Danbury Branch. Many trains run express from New York to Stamford, making it an easy 45-minute ride.
In the 2005 and 2006 sessions of the Legislature, massive appropriations were made to buy replacements for the 343 rail cars for the Metro-North New Haven Line and branch lines. The approximately 30-year-old cars will be replaced with new cars at a rate of ten per month starting in 2010.[82]
U.S. 1 is the oldest east–west route in the county, running through all of its shoreline cities and towns. Known by various names along its length, most commonly "Boston Post Road" or simply "Post Road", it gradually gains latitude from west to east. Thus, U.S. 1 west is officially designated "South" and east is "North".
Though contiguous, U.S. 1 changes name by locality. In Greenwich it is Putnam Avenue. In Stamford, it becomes Main Street or Tresser Boulevard. In Darien, it is Boston Post Road or "the Post Road". In Norwalk, it is Connecticut Avenue in the west, Van Zant St, Cross St, and North Av in the center, and Westport Avenue in the east. In Westport, it is Post Road West from the Norwalk town line until the Saugatuck River, where it becomes Post Road East until Fairfield. In Fairfield, it is again Boston Post Road or "the Post Road". In Bridgeport, it follows Kings Highway in the west, North Avenue in the center, and Boston Avenue in the east. Finally, it becomes Barnum Avenue in Stratford.
The western portions of Interstate 95 in Connecticut are known as the Connecticut Turnpike or the Governor John Davis Lodge Turnpike in Fairfield County and it crosses the state approximately parallel to U.S. Route 1. The road is most commonly referred to as "I-95". The highway is six lanes (sometimes eight lanes) throughout the county. It was completed in 1958 and is often clogged with traffic particularly during morning and evening rush hours.
With the high cost of land along the Gold Coast, state lawmakers do not consider widening the highway to be fiscally feasible, although occasional stretches between entrances and nearby exits are now sometimes connected with a fourth "operational improvement"Archived March 17, 2006, at the Wayback Machine lane (for instance, westbound between the Exit 10 interchange in Darien and Exit 8 in Stamford).
The interchange between the Merritt Parkway and Route 7 in Norwalk was completed around the year 2000. The project was held up in a lawsuit won by preservationists concerned about the historic Merritt Parkway bridges. It is now exit 16/17A off the Merritt, and exit 15 off I-95. The parkway is a National Scenic Byway and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[83]
Interstate 84, which runs through Danbury, is scheduled to be widened to a six-lane highway at all points between Danbury and Waterbury. State officials say they hope the widening will not only benefit drivers regularly on the route but also entice some cars from the more crowded Interstate 95, which runs roughly parallel to it. Heavier trucks are unlikely to use Interstate 84 more often, however, because the route is much hillier than I-95 according to a state Department of Transportation official.
With its southern terminus at Interstate 95 in central Norwalk, U.S. Route 7 heads north through Wilton, Ridgefield, Danbury, and Brookfield to points north of the county. The route follows a path that was part of the pre-ColumbianGreat Trail.[84] In the 1950s, officials planned to convert all of the route to a four to six lane expressway.[84] The expressway was constructed in the cities of Danbury and Norwalk, but faced significantly opposition that prevented it from being constructed through the towns in between the two.[84][85] Plans to construct the expressway, known as "Super 7", have been floated throughout the decades, but have faced vocal opposition, and it has never been constructed.[84][85] In lieu of the expressway, segments of Route 7 in Fairfield County have been widened over the years.[85] Additionally, the expressway in Danbury has expanded north through Brookfield over the decades.[86]
Route 8 terminates in downtown Bridgeport from I-95 with Connecticut Route 25 and goes north. It splits from Connecticut Route 25 at the Bridgeport—Trumbull town line and continues north into southeastern Trumbull and Shelton, then beyond the county through some of towns of the Naugatuck River Valley to Waterbury and beyond. Construction of the route provided some impetus for the creation of office parks in Shelton and home construction there and in other parts of The Valley.
Route 25 starts in downtown Bridgeport from I 95 with Route 8 and goes north. It splits from Connecticut Route 8 at the Bridgeport—Trumbull town line and continues into Trumbull. The limited access divided expressway ends in northern Trumbull, but Route 25 continues into Monroe, Newtown, and Brookfield.
Map of Fairfield County, Connecticut labeling types of municipalities by color. Towns in light green, Cities in Red, and Boroughs in Dark RedMap of Fairfield County, Connecticut showing cities, boroughs, towns, and CDPs
Note: Villages are named localities within towns, but have no separate corporate existence from the towns they are in.
Fairfield County is in the New York City TV market and receives its TV stations. Some TV stations in the Hartford-New Haven are also available to Fairfield County viewers.
News 12 Connecticut has studios in Norwalk and covers Fairfield County as well as statewide news from Hartford.
Until 2022, WFSB from Hartford maintained a secondary feed for Fairfield County on their fourth subchannel which was carried by area cable providers; it mainly offered different advertising for local businesses, along with a different programming schedule that addressed syndicated programming which is claimed by New York City stations and would otherwise be blacked out on WFSB.
A view of the Tea House in Cranbury Park in Norwalk. The park also has dog walking and frisbee trails, a building for the arts, and a mansion for weddings.
Greater Bridgeport Symphony. Founded in 1945, its concerts are held at Klein Memorial Auditorium in Bridgeport
Connecticut Grand Opera, a not-for-profit, professional opera company founded in 1993 and based in Stamford
Danbury Symphony Orchestra
Greenwich Symphony Orchestra
Norwalk Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1939
Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra Lumos
Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra, a not-for-profit organization providing young musicians in the Fairfield County and Upper Westchester County areas with a classical symphony experience
The Barnum Festival has been held in the Spring in Bridgeport since 1949 to raise money for charity
The Connecticut Film Festival is held in the Spring in Danbury
The Fairfield County Freestyle Championships are generally held once a semester on the campus of Sacred Heart University. This event showcases the best freestyle dancers and rappers
The Gathering of the Vibes musical event has been held in Bridgeport's Seaside Park in 1999, 2000, 2007, and again in 2008
Musicals at Richter, held every summer in Danbury, is Connecticut's longest running outdoor theater
The Norwalk Oyster Festival is an annual fair in the city of Norwalk that features craft vendors and live music performances. The festival takes place on the first weekend after Labor Day in Veterans Park, near Long Island Sound
^Nova, Susan, "Shingle-style masterpiece: Greenwich home carries price tag of $8.65 million", Real Estate section of The Advocate of Stamford, Connecticut, and Greenwich Time, both on September 26, 2008
^DiGiovanni, the Rev. (now Monsignor) Stephen M., The Catholic Church in Fairfield County: 1666–1961, 1987; William Mulvey Inc., New Canaan, Chapter II: The New Catholic Immigrants, 1880–1930; subchapter: "The True American: White, Protestant, Non-Alcoholic", pp. 81–82; DiGiovanni, in turn, cites (Footnote 209, page 258) Jackson, Kenneth T., The Ku Klux Klan in the City, 1915–1930 (New York, 1981), p. 239
^Varekamp, JC; Buchholtz ten Brink, MR; Mecray, EL; Kreulen, B (Summer 2000). "Mercury in Long Island Sound Sediments". Journal of Coastal Research. 16 (3): 613–626. Bibcode:2000JCRes..16..613V. JSTOR4300074.
^"Station: Bridgeport Sikorsky Mem AP, CT". U.S. Climate Normals 2020: U.S. Monthly Climate Normals (1991–2020). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Archived from the original on May 11, 2021. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
^"Station: Danbury, CT". U.S. Climate Normals 2020: U.S. Monthly Climate Normals (1991–2020). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Archived from the original on June 2, 2021. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
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