Founding The neighborhood's name combines the names of what was the hamlet of Bedford, and the Stuyvesant Heights neighborhoods, initially separate neighborhoods that grew together. The 17th-century hamlet of Bedford was named after the market town of
Bedford in
England. Stuyvesant Heights was named for
Peter Stuyvesant, the last governor of the colony of
New Netherland.
17th and 18th centuries In the second half of the 17th century, the lands which constitute the present neighborhood belonged to three Dutch settlers: Dirck Janse Hooghland, who operated a ferryboat on the East River, and farmers Jan Hansen, and Leffert Pietersen van Haughwout. In pre-
revolutionary Kings County, Bedford was the first major settlement east of the Village of Brooklyn, on the ferry road to the town of
Jamaica and eastern
Long Island. Stuyvesant Heights, however, was farmland; the area became a community after the American Revolutionary War. For most of its early history, Stuyvesant Heights was part of the outlying farm area of the small hamlet of Bedford, settled by the Dutch during the 17th century within the incorporated town of Breuckelen. The hamlet had its beginnings when a group of Breuckelen residents decided to improve their farm properties behind the Wallabout section, which gradually developed into an important produce center and market. The petition to form a new hamlet was approved by Governor Stuyvesant in 1663. Its leading signer was Thomas Lambertsen, a carpenter from Holland. In 1664, the English capture of New Netherland signaled the end of Dutch rule. In
Governor Nicolls' Charter of 1667 and in the Charter of 1686, Bedford is mentioned as a settlement within the Town of Brueckelen. Bedford hamlet had an inn as early as 1668, and, in 1670, the people of Breuckelen purchased from the
Canarsie Indians an additional area for common lands in the surrounding region. Bedford Corners, approximately located where the present
Bedford Avenue meets
Fulton Street, and only three blocks west of the present Historic District, was the intersection of several well traveled roads. The Brooklyn and Jamaica Turnpike, constructed by a corporation founded in 1809 and one of the oldest roads in Kings County, ran parallel to the present Fulton Street, from the East River ferry to the village of Brooklyn, thence to the hamlet of Bedford and on toward Jamaica via Bed–Stuy. Farmers from New Lots and Flatbush used this road on their way to Manhattan. Within the Stuyvesant Heights Historic District, the Turnpike ran along the approximate line of Decatur Street. Cripplebush Road to Newtown and the Clove Road to Flatbush also met at Bedford Corners. Hunterfly Road, which joined the Turnpike about a mile to the east of Clove Road, also served as a route for farmers and fishermen of the Canarsie and New Lots areas. At the time of the Revolution, Leffert's son Jakop was a leading citizen of Bedford and the town clerk of Brooklyn. His neighbor, Lambert Suydam, was captain of the Kings County cavalry in 1776. An important part of the
Battle of Long Island took place in and near the Historic District. In 1784, the people of the Town of Brooklyn held their first town meeting since 1776.
19th century In 1800, Bedford was designated one of the seven districts of the Town of Brooklyn, and, in 1834, it became part of the seventh and ninth wards of the newly incorporated City of Brooklyn. With the building of the
Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad in 1833, along
Atlantic Avenue, Bedford was established as a railroad station near the intersection of current Atlantic Avenue and Franklin Avenues. In 1836, the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad was taken over by the
Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), which in 1878 would gain a connection to the
Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railway's northern terminal. The
Weeksville subsection, founded in 1838, was recognized as one of the first, free
African-American communities in the United States. The present
street grid was laid out in 1835, as shown by the Street Commissioners map of 1839, and the blocks were divided into lots. The new
street grid led to the abandonment of the Brooklyn and Jamaica Turnpike in favor of a continuation of Brooklyn's Fulton Street. The lands for the street grid were sold to the City of Brooklyn in 1852. When Charles C. Betts purchased Maria Lott's tract of land the same year, this marked the end of two centuries of Dutch patrimonial holdings. Most of the streets were opened in the 1860s, at which point Bedford–Stuyvesant's streets were named after prominent figures in American history. The Dripps Map of 1869 shows that the area was still largely rural with a few freestanding houses mostly on MacDonough Street. The real development of the district began slowly at first, accelerating between 1885 and 1900, and gradually tapering off during the first two decades of the 20th century. In 1857, the City of Brooklyn acquired part of the estate of Tunis Johnson, grandson of
Jeremiah Johnson, to establish a public park. The park was opened in 1871, named Tompkins Park after
Daniel D. Tompkins. In 1985 it was renamed
Herbert Von King Park after the local community leader. Construction of masonry row houses in the 1870s began to transform the rural district into an urban area. The first row of masonry houses in Stuyvesant Heights was built in 1872 on MacDonough Street for developer Curtis L. North. In the 1880s and 1890s, more rows were added, most of the Stuyvesant Heights north of Decatur Street looked much as it does today. Stuyvesant Heights was emerging as a neighborhood entity with its own distinctive characteristics. The houses had large rooms, high ceilings and large windows, and were built primarily by German immigrants. The people who bought these houses were generally upper-middle-class families, mostly lawyers, shopkeepers, and merchants of German and Irish descent, with a sprinkling of English people; there were also a few professionals. A contemporary description calls it a very well kept residential neighborhood, typical of the general description of Brooklyn as "a town of homes and churches". Built in 1863, the
Capitoline Grounds were the home of the
Brooklyn Atlantics baseball team. The grounds were bordered by Nostrand Avenue, Halsey Street, Marcy Avenue, and Putnam Avenue. During the 1930s, major changes took place due to the
Great Depression years. Immigrants from the American South and the
Caribbean brought the neighborhood's black population to around 30,000, making it the second largest
Black community in the city at the time. During
World War II, the
Brooklyn Navy Yard attracted many black New Yorkers to the neighborhood as an opportunity for employment. One of the first urban
riots of the era took place there due to social and racial divisions in the city contributed to the tensions. The relationship between the NYPD and the city's black community became strained due to perceptions of the NYPD as being oppressive and racially biased, and at that time, few black policemen were present on the force. Predominantly black neighborhoods received disproportionate rates of arrests and prosecutions for drug-related crimes, and the NYPD's 79th Precinct in Bedford–Stuyvesant had been one of the only three police precincts in the NYPD to which black police officers were assigned. Race riots followed in 1967 and 1968, as part of the political and racial tensions in the United States of the era, aggravated by continued high unemployment among blacks, continued
de facto segregation in housing, and the failure to enforce
civil rights laws. speaks with a boy while touring Bedford–Stuyvesant.With the help of local activists and politicians, such as Civil Court Judge
Thomas Jones, grassroots organizations of community members and businesses willing to aid were formed and began the rebuilding of Bedford–Stuyvesant. In 1965,
Andrew W. Cooper, a journalist from Bedford–Stuyvesant, brought suit under the
Voting Rights Act against racial
gerrymandering under the grounds that Bedford–Stuyvesant was divided among five
congressional districts, each with a white
representative. It resulted in the creation of
New York's 12th Congressional District and the election in 1968 of
Shirley Chisholm, the
first black woman and
West Indian American ever elected to the
US Congress. In 1967,
Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. senator for New York state, launched a study of problems facing the urban poor in Bedford–Stuyvesant, which received almost no federal aid and was the city's largest non-white community. Under Kennedy's leadership and with the help of activists, the
Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation was established as the United States' first community development corporation. The Manhattan-based Development and Services Corporation (D&S) was established with business, banking and professional leaders which advised and raised private funding for the BSRC's projects.
Recent history 2000s Beginning in the 2000s, the neighborhood began to experience
gentrification. Through a series of "wallscapes" (large outdoor
murals), the campaign honored famous community members, including community activist and poet
June Jordan, activist
Hattie Carthan, and rapper
The Notorious B.I.G. The campaign sought to show off the area's positive accomplishments. Several long-time residents and business owners expressed concern that they would be priced out by newcomers, whom they disparagingly characterize as "
yuppies and
buppies [black urban professionals]", according to one neighborhood blog. They feared that the neighborhood's ethnic character would be lost. However, Bedford–Stuyvesant's population has experienced much less displacement of the black population than other areas of Brooklyn, such as
Williamsburg and
Cobble Hill. Bedford–Stuyvesant saw the influx of more
upwardly mobile middle-class African-American families, as well as immigrants from
Africa and the
Caribbean. Surrounding neighborhoods in northern and eastern Brooklyn have a combined population of about 940,000 and are roughly 82% black, making them the largest concentration of African Americans in the United States. In July 2005, the NYPD designated the Fulton Street–Nostrand Avenue business district in Bedford–Stuyvesant as an "Impact Zone", which directed significantly increased levels of police protection and resources to the area for two consecutive six-month periods, resulting in a 15% decrease in crime within one year. Despite the improvements and increasing stability of the community, Bedford–Stuyvesant has continued to be stigmatized in some circles. In March 2005 a campaign was launched to supplant the "Bed-Stuy, Do-or-Die" slogan with "Bed-Stuy, and Proud of It". Violent crime also remained a problem in the area, and the two precincts that cover Bedford–Stuyvesant reported a combined 37 murders in 2010.
2010s to present Despite the
largest recession to hit the United States in the last 70 years, gentrification continued steadily, and the blocks west of the Nostrand Avenue/Fulton Street intersection and north of Fulton Street and Stuyvesant Avenue were particularly impacted. In 2011, Bedford–Stuyvesant listed three
Zagat-rated restaurants for the first time; by 2014, there were over ten Zagat-rated establishments. Moreover, in June 2013, 7 Arlington Place, the setting for
Spike Lee's 1994 film
Crooklyn, was sold for over its asking price, at $1.7 million. A diverse mix of students,
hipsters, artists, creative professionals, architects, and attorneys of all races continued to move to the neighborhood. A business improvement district was launched along the Fulton and Nostrand Corridor, with a redesigned streetscape planned to include new street trees, street furniture,
pavers, and signage and improved cleanliness in an effort to attract more business investment. Major infrastructure upgrades have been performed or are in progress, such as
Select Bus Service bus rapid transit on the route along Nostrand and Bedford Avenues, which began operating in late 2013. Other infrastructure upgrades in the neighborhood included major sewer and water modernization projects, as well as fiber-optic and cable service upgrades. Improved natural and organic produce continued to become available at local delis and grocers, the farmer's market on Malcolm X Boulevard, and through the Bed-Stuy Farm Share.
FreshDirect services the neighborhood, and a large member constituency of the adjacent Greene-Hill Food Coop are from Bedford–Stuyvesant.
2020s In 2020, western Bedford-Stuyvesant had an almost equal population of
white and
black residents, with each of their populations at between 30,000 and 39,999, and between 10,000 and 19,999 Hispanic residents. Eastern Bedford-Stuvyvesant had over 40,000 black residents, 20,000 to 29,000 white residents, and 10,000 to 19,999 Hispanic residents. The 2020 census data show Bedford-Stuyvesant with an increasing diverse racial community. In 2024, the installation of
Bed-Stuy Aquarium highlighted the broader social tensions surrounding gentrification in the neighborhood. In one notable incident, two residents attempted to remove some of the fish, citing cruelty, which sparked a larger debate about the neighborhood’s changing dynamics. ==Subsections==