A Great Mistake Averted: Brooklyn Was Almost Renamed “New York East”
In keeping with the Brooklyn history posts, we thought this was interesting: in 1897 (110 years ago, natch), a serious proposal was floated to drop the name Brooklyn and rename our fair locale “New York East” to help the image of the business community. Doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it? The proposal would also have named the Bronx “New York North,” Staten Island “New York South,” and Manhattan, plain old New York. Brooklyn and Queens would actually have been grouped together as “New York East.”
This was back when Brooklyn was a separate city of its own, and was just on the eve of the consolidation of New York into five boroughs–at which point Brooklyn officially became part of the greater City of New York (still known to some as the Great Mistake because Brooklyn lost some of its independent identity). The actual name Brooklyn derives from the Dutch town Breukelen. The first settlers in Brooklyn in the 1620s were Dutch and the village was officially authorized by the Dutch West India Company in 1646.
It seems the business community agitated to drop “Brooklyn” for “New York East” to garner some additional prestige from being known as “New York”–and some thought the name scheme would improve postal delivery. A May 14, 1897 Brooklyn Eagle article titled “Shall it Be Brooklyn or New York East?” has a great quote from a world-travelling gentleman at the time:
During trips I have made to Europe I found that in the large cities greater respect and more courtesy and attention was shown me when I registered from New York than when I wrote down the name of Brooklyn. During any future trip I may make I will register from New York. There is a good deal of sentiment attached to the matter, however, and I am simply saying what my individual experience has been.
Despite this old-time Brooklyn disrespect, the renaming attempt thankfully failed–most people quoted in the article opposed the loss of identity that would result. In retrospect, being part of New York City has probably benefited Brooklyn despite some loss of a separate identity. It would have been a real mistake though, if we’d lost the name itself.
- Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online Archive (Brooklyn Public Library)
- History of Brooklyn (Wikipedia)