Memorial in Lady Moody Square, Gravesend, Brooklyn

Lady Deborah Moody (1586 - 1659?) was the only woman to found a colonial settlement in early North America. She was the first female landowner in the New World.^[1] She had an unusual influence in a society dominated by men, and was described by contemporaries as "a dangerous woman."

Biography[link]

Lady Moody was born Deborah Dunch in London in 1586, the daughter of Walter and Debora Dunch. She married Henry Moody, a marriage that granted her the formal title of Lady. She became a widow by 1629. ^[2]

Lady Moody left England in 1639 due to religious persecution. She was a believer in Anabaptism, a sect that rebelled against baptism of infants because a child cannot commit to religious faith. She first settled in Saugus, Massachusetts, but left there in 1643 after being admonished by the Puritan leaders for failing to conform to their religious beliefs. Many others with the same religious beliefs left with her.

She led a group of religious dissenters fleeing persecution to found the town of Gravesend in 1645, in the Dutch colony of New Netherland. Today the area is part of Brooklyn in New York City, with the original town square still evident in the street layout. The people from Gravesend were granted religious freedom, which was unusual for that period. Deborah Moody became influential in New Netherland and had good relations with governor Peter Stuyvesant. She is believed to be buried in Old Gravesend Cemetery.^[3]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Deborah Moody, Biography, allrefer.com
• G. Dewan, A Dangerous 1600's Woman, Long Island History, Newsday.com

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New York City map with Brighton Beach marked.

Brighton Beach is an oceanside neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. As of 2007, it has a population of 75,692 with a total of 31,228 households.^[1] It is known for its high population of Russian speaking immigrants ^[2] and as a summer destination for New York City residents due to its beaches along the Atlantic Ocean and its proximity to the amusement parks in Coney Island. In popular culture, the neighborhood served as the setting for the 1983 Neil Simon play Brighton Beach Memoirs, a coming of age story about a family living in the neighborhood during the great depression.^[3] In current popular culture, the neighborhood has been used as a setting for New York television shows such as Law & Order, Blue Bloods, and Person of Interest. In August 2011 a reality TV series, Russian Dolls, followed the lives of eight women living in the community.^[4]

Location[link]

1873 map of Brighton Beach Downtown section of Brighton Beach, looking east along Brighton Beach Ave. from the corner of Coney Island Ave., near the Brighton Beach subway station A Russian-language bookstore under the elevated train tracks on Coney Island Ave. in Brighton Beach Recently built luxury condos on Brighton Beach Where apartments and private homes meet P.S. 225, a school in Brighton Beach Brighton 15th Street

Brighton Beach is bounded by Coney Island at Ocean Parkway to the west, Manhattan Beach at Corbin Place to the east, Gravesend at the Belt Parkway to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south (at the Riegelmann Boardwalk/beachfront).^[5] It is patrolled by the NYPD's 60th Precinct.^[6]

History[link]

Brighton Beach was developed by William A. Engeman as a beach resort in 1868, and was named by Henry C. Murphy and a group of businessmen in an 1878 contest;^[5] the winning name evoked the resort of Brighton, England.

The centerpiece of the resort was the large Hotel Brighton (or Brighton Beach Hotel), placed on the beach at what is now the foot of Coney Island Avenue and accessed by the Brooklyn, Flatbush, and Coney Island Railway, which opened on July 2, 1878. After a series of winter storms threatened to swamp the hotel, an audacious plan was developed to move it in one piece 520 feet further inland by placing railroad track and 112 railroad flat cars under the raised 460 ft. by 130 ft. building and using six steam locomotives to pull it away from the sea. Engineered by B.C. Miller, the move was begun on April 2, 1888 and continued for the next nine days, being the largest building move of the 19th century.^[7]

Adjacent to the hotel, Engeman built the Brighton Beach Race Course for Thoroughbred horse racing. The village was annexed into the 31st Ward of the City of Brooklyn in 1894.

Brighton Beach was re-developed as a fairly dense residential community with the final rebuilding of the Brighton Beach railway into a modern rapid transit line, known as the BMT Brighton Line of the New York City Subway c. 1920. The subway system in the neighborhood is above ground on an elevated structure.

The years just before and following The Great Depression brought with them a neighborhood consisting mostly of first and second generation Jewish-Americans and, later, concentration camp survivors.^[8] Of the 55,000 estimated Holocaust survivors living in New York City as of 2011, most survivors live in Brighton Beach.^[9]

Notable establishments included Diamond's (a small clothing store owned by the parents of Neil Diamond), Irving's Deli, Mrs. Stahl's Knishes and The Famous, a kosher restaurant. The summer would bring the crowds, and many world renowned celebrities, to the Brighton Beach Baths (Private Beach Club) and surrounding public beaches.

Today, the area has a large community of Jewish immigrants who left the Former Soviet Union since 1970. Some non-Jewish immigrants, such as Armenians and Georgians, have also settled in Brighton Beach and the surrounding neighborhoods, taking advantage of the already established Russian-speaking community.

Culture[link]

Crowded Brighton Beach on a summer afternoon

Water sports on Brighton Beach

Brighton Beach was dubbed "Little Odessa" by the local populace due to many of its residents having come from Odessa, a city of Ukraine.^[10] In 2006, Alec Brook-Krasny was elected for the 46th District of the New York State Assembly, the first elected Soviet-born Jewish politician from Brighton Beach.

The proximity of Brighton Beach to the city's beaches (Brighton Beach Avenue runs parallel to the Coney Island beach and boardwalk) and the fact the neighborhood is directly served by a subway station makes it a popular summer weekend destination for New York City residents.

Transportation[link]

Roadways[link]

Major roadways in Brighton Beach are the Belt Parkway, Coney Island Avenue and Ocean Parkway.

New York City Subway[link]

The BMT Brighton Line has two stations, Brighton Beach and Ocean Parkway, serving the neighborhood. Both are located on an elevated structure over Brighton Beach Avenue. The Q train provides local service north to Manhattan at all times while the B train provides express service weekdays only.

New York City Buses[link]

Buses serving Brighton Beach include the B1, B36, B49, and B68.

Education[link]

Brighton Beach is served by the New York City Department of Education. Manhattan Beach is zoned to PS 225 The Eileen E. Zaglin School for grades K-8, as well as PS 100 The Coney Island School located on Brighton Beach and West 3rd Street for grades K-5 and P.S. 253 The Magnet School of Multicultural Humanities.

Nearby high schools include:

• Rachel Carson High School of Coastal Studies
• The Leon M. Goldstein High School for the Sciences
• William E. Grady Vocational High School
• Abraham Lincoln High School

Crime[link]

Brighton Beach is considered a hot spot for the Russian Mafia,^[11] though public perception has been that organized crime "has largely gone away." ^[12] In the 1970s, the most notorious leg of the mafia was the Potato Bag Gang,^[13] which served as a robbery gang for larger Russian crime syndicates in New York City. Marat Balagula was a crime boss from Brighton Beach who denies having any connection to the American Mafia or the Russian-speaking Mafia. Also the biggest known yet gang, Buniit gang is the most violent.

In popular culture[link]

• The Neil Simon play, Brighton Beach Memoirs, which won two Tony awards in 1983, and its subsequent film adaptation, are both set against the backdrop of Brighton Beach in 1937.
• The 1994 film Little Odessa is set in Brighton Beach.
• In Darren Aronofsky's 2000 film, Requiem for a Dream, the character Sara Goldfarb (played by Ellen Burstyn) lives in an apartment on Brighton 6th Street.
• In the film Lord of War, the main character, Yuri Orlov, played by Nicolas Cage, lives in Brighton Beach.
• In the 2007 crime drama, We Own the Night, the character Bobby Green, played by Joaquin Phoenix, is the manager of a nightclub in Brighton Beach.
• In the 2009 film Two Lovers, featuring Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow, the action takes place in Brighton Beach.
• Brighton Beach is also featured in the 1990s Russian spy-comedy Weather Is Good on Deribasovskaya, It Rains Again on Brighton Beach.
• In the Russian crime film Brother 2, Danila, the protagonist, comes to Brighton Beach from Russia.
• In the 1998 novel In Every Laugh a Tear by Lesléa Newman, developments take place partly in Brighton Beach.
• In the 1998 trading autobiography The Education of a Speculator, speculator and hedge fund manager Victor Niederhoffer takes us back to his childhood in Brighton Beach during the 1950s.
• In the 2000 novel Vector by Robin Cook, disillusioned former Russian biochemical worker Yuri Davydov develops weapons-grade Anthrax in the basement of his Brighton Beach home.
• Brighton Beach is where Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character Neil McCormick was taken to be beaten and raped in the 2004 film, Mysterious Skin.
• In the 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV, Brighton Beach is represented by the neighborhood of "Hove Beach". This is in reference to Brighton, England's proximity to, and relationship with, neighboring Hove. The two, having city status, are officially known as Brighton and Hove.
• In the songs "Xero Tolerance" and "Hey Pete" by Type O Negative, Brighton Beach is mentioned as the place where Pete is going to kill his cheating girlfriend. The D-train is his means of transportation in these songs. The full title of the band's faux-live album on which these songs appear is "The Origin Of The Feces - Not Live At Brighton Beach".
• In the video game, XIII, Brighton Beach is one of the first settings of the game's complex plotline.
• The French electronic music group Telepopmusik has a song on their album Angel Milk entitled "Brighton Beach".
• In the space flight simulator Orbiter, there is a fictional base on the moon named Brighton Beach.
• On the TV series The West Wing, Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff) hails from Brighton Beach.
• On the TV series Bored to Death, unlicensed private detective Jonathan Ames investigates a case based at a Russian nightclub in Brighton Beach.
• A Lifetime reality TV show called Russian Dolls, documenting the lives of young Russian-Americans and a group of Brighton Beach housewives spending time in a popular Russian nightclub, Rasputin Restaurant, premiered August 11, 2011.
• In an episode of the CBS's Blue Bloods the storyline revolves around the murder of a Russian Mob associate who lived in Brighton Beach. Several scenes are shot on and around the boardwalk.
• In Haley Tanner's debut novel "Vaclav and Lena" (2011) action takes place in Brighton Beach
• In the episode "Witness" of the TV series Person of Interest (2011), Reese has to protect a Brighton Beach high school history teacher who's being hunted by the Russian mob.

Brighton Beach is mentioned:

• In a Rilo Kiley song "Close Call", in which the lyrics "She was born on a Brighton pier to a gypsy mother and a bucket of tears..." are sung.
• In a Little Brazil song "Brighton Beach", in which the lyrics, "I first met her Brighton Beach back in 1973..." are sung.
• In two songs on gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello's album Multi Kontra Culti vs. Irony: "Smarkatch" and "Let's Get Radical".
• In the 2002 film 25th Hour during Edward Norton's rant about New York City.
• In the German soap opera Verbotene Liebe (Forbidden Love), when Christian Mann and Oliver Sabel return to Düsseldorf from New York. Christian claims to have learned a new recipe while in "Little Odessa".

Notable residents[link]

Notable current and former residents of Brighton Beach include:

• Marat Balagula (born 1943) neighborhood mob boss during the 1980s
• Eddie Daniels, clarinettist and saxophonist
• Howard Greenfield (1936–86), songwriter^[14]
• Vyacheslav Ivankov (1940–2009), alleged crime boss
• Jack Kirby (1917–1994), comic book artist, co-creator of Captain America during the early 1940s
• Lea Bayers Rapp (born 1946), author, journalist, playwright^[15]
• Lynn Ross (stage name), dancer in original 1957 Broadway production of West Side Story^[16]
• Neil Sedaka (born 1939), songwriter^[17]
• The Tokens, vocal group formed in 1955 at Abraham Lincoln High School^[18]

See also[link]

New York City portal

• Coney Island and Brooklyn Railroad

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Brighton Beach, Brooklyn

• Brighton Beach Neighborhood Association
• Russian Community Life Center
• Brighton Beach News Russian-American newspaper
• NY Mag Everything Guide to Brighton Beach

Coordinates: 40°34′39″N 73°57′42″W / 40.577598°N 73.961565°W / 40.577598; -73.961565

v t e Neighborhoods in the New York City Borough of Brooklyn ATURA Barren Island Bath Beach Bay Ridge Bedford Bedford-Stuyvesant Bensonhurst Bergen Beach BoCoCa Boerum Hill Borough Park Brighton Beach Brooklyn Chinatown Brooklyn Heights Brownsville Bushwick Canarsie Carroll Gardens City Line Clinton Hill Cobble Hill Coney Island Crown Heights Cypress Hills Ditmas Park Downtown Dumbo Dyker Heights East Flatbush East New York East Williamsburg Farragut Fiske Terrace Flatbush Flatlands Fort Greene Fort Hamilton Fulton Ferry Georgetown Gerritsen Beach Gowanus Gravesend Greenpoint Greenwood Heights Highland Park Homecrest Kensington Little Poland Lapskaus Boulevard Madison Manhattan Beach Mapleton Marine Park Midwood Mill Basin Navy Yard New Lots New Utrecht Ocean Hill Ocean Parkway Park Slope Plum Beach Prospect Heights Prospect Lefferts Gardens Prospect Park South RAMBO Red Hook Sea Gate Sheepshead Bay South Park Slope Starrett City Stuyvesant Heights Sunset Park Vinegar Hill Weeksville White Sands Williamsburg Windsor Terrace Wingate Wyckoff Heights Community Boards: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Coordinates: 40°34′55.2″N 73°56′31.2″W / 40.582°N 73.942°W / 40.582; -73.942

Ocean Avenue Footbridge

Sheepshead Bay is a bay separating the mainland of Brooklyn, New York City from the eastern portion of Coney Island, the latter originally a barrier island but now effectively an extension of the mainland with peninsulas both east (the neighborhood of Manhattan Beach) and west (the neighborhoods of Coney Island and Sea Gate). Its mouth is about a mile (1.6 km) southwest of Marine Park, Brooklyn. The area is part of Brooklyn Community Board 15.^[1]

The bay itself was originally the easterly entrance to Coney Island Creek, but filling of the central part of this waterway during the 1930s in conjunction with construction of the Shore Parkway portion of the Belt Parkway eliminated access to the creek. At the same time the bay was widened at its western end, deepened and bulkheaded. It is now the home of recreational fishing fleets. The fishing fleet has been shrinking every year and is being replaced by dinner boats. At the western end of the bay, there is Holocaust Memorial Park, which is used throughout the year for commemorative events.

In the last decade of the 20th century, a real estate boom brought the reopening of the landmark Lundy Brothers seafood restaurant, which closed again in 2007. A grocery store now takes its place. Soviet-style restaurants/nightclubs such as Paradise and Baku Palace have opened along the waterfront. It has also experienced a growth of condominium developments. Emmons Avenue, the northern shoreline street along the bay, has piers with an active seafood market and tour boats.

Sheepshead Bay is named for the sheepshead^[2], an edible fish once found in the bay's waters. Even though it is rare, the fish can still be caught in the local waters every once in a while.

Demographics[link]

As of 2007, there were 123,181 people living in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood. The demographics were 75.4% White, 14.6% Asian, 6.6% Hispanic or Latino, 4.7% African American and 0.2% Native American. Brooklyn's Avenue U Chinatown, which recently emerged as the 2nd Chinatown of Brooklyn during the late 1990s happens to overlap between Sheepshead Bay and Homecrest.^[3][4]

Community and location[link]

Facing west, towards the head

Subway service to Sheepshead Bay is provided by the BMT Brighton Line (B and Q trains), with local stops at Avenue U and Neck Road, and express-local stops at the Kings Highway and Sheepshead Bay Road station. The main shopping and business thoroughfares are Emmons Avenue, Sheepshead Bay Road, Ocean Avenue, and Nostrand Avenue. Emmons Avenue is at the west end of the shore Greenway which lies between Shore Parkway and Jamaica Bay, connecting eastward and northward to Canarsie and Cross Bay Boulevard. Emmons Avenue is a waterfront road with piers from which yachts and boats offer day trips for fishing and dancing.

Several public schools serve the community: Sheepshead Bay High School; JHS 14 Shell Bank Intermediate School; The Bay Academy; P.S. 254 and P.S. 52 (elementary). Private schools in the area include the St. Mark's School and St. Edmund's. Kingsborough Community College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY) is nearby. Sheepshead Bay is patrolled by the NYPD's 61st ^[5] Precinct.

Much like its neighbor, Brighton Beach, Sheepshead Bay is known for its high concentration of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Many stores and buildings are bilingual, with both English and Russian signage. Other ethnic groups include Italians, Irish, Jews, Turkish, Chinese and some Spanish.

Sheepshead Bay is served by the independent news blog Sheepshead Bites.^[6]

Notable residents[link]

Notable current and former residents of Sheepshead Bay include:

• Elayne Boosler, comedienne
• James Brady (1928–2009), columnist.^[7]
• Andrew Dice Clay, comedian
• Larry David (born 1947), comedian.^[8]
• James E. Fitzsimmons (1874–1966), thoroughbred horse trainer.^[9]
• Frank Frazetta, artist, lived in Sheepshead Bay
• Keith Green (1953–1982), gospel singer.^[10]
• Terry Gross (born 1951), host of Fresh Air on National Public Radio.^[11]
• Vince Lombardi (1913-1970), legendary NFL head coach of the Green Bay Packers.
• James Morrissey, (born 1966) Fisherman worked out of Sheepshead Bay
• Rico Petrocelli, Boston Red Sox shortstop and third baseman, 1963–1976
• Thomas Pitera, mafia mobster, grew up in Sheepshead Bay
• Mark Roth, professional bowler; second in all-time professional tour earnings
• Michelle Trachtenberg (born 1985), actress.^[12]
• Frank Mainolfi, former Dada 5000 and Strikeforce fighter.^[13]

Elected Officials[link]

• Congressional District: New York's 9th Congressional District- Congressman Bob Turner (politician)^[14]
• Council District: 46th District- Councilman Lewis Fidler^[15]
• 48th District- Councilman Michael Chaim Nelson^[16]
• State Senate District: 27th District- State Senator Carl Kruger^[17]
• Assembly District: 41st District- Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein^[18]
• 45th District- Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz ^[19]
• 59th District- Assemblyman Alan Maisel^[20]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn

• Sheepshead Bay Music Video
• Neighborhood Watch: Sheepshead Bay / LifeStyler
• City Data

v t e Neighborhoods in the New York City Borough of Brooklyn ATURA Barren Island Bath Beach Bay Ridge Bedford Bedford-Stuyvesant Bensonhurst Bergen Beach BoCoCa Boerum Hill Borough Park Brighton Beach Brooklyn Chinatown Brooklyn Heights Brownsville Bushwick Canarsie Carroll Gardens City Line Clinton Hill Cobble Hill Coney Island Crown Heights Cypress Hills Ditmas Park Downtown Dumbo Dyker Heights East Flatbush East New York East Williamsburg Farragut Fiske Terrace Flatbush Flatlands Fort Greene Fort Hamilton Fulton Ferry Georgetown Gerritsen Beach Gowanus Gravesend Greenpoint Greenwood Heights Highland Park Homecrest Kensington Little Poland Lapskaus Boulevard Madison Manhattan Beach Mapleton Marine Park Midwood Mill Basin Navy Yard New Lots New Utrecht Ocean Hill Ocean Parkway Park Slope Plum Beach Prospect Heights Prospect Lefferts Gardens Prospect Park South RAMBO Red Hook Sea Gate Sheepshead Bay South Park Slope Starrett City Stuyvesant Heights Sunset Park Vinegar Hill Weeksville White Sands Williamsburg Windsor Terrace Wingate Wyckoff Heights Community Boards: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18