You'll see gravestone inscriptions in both English and Dutch on the monuments in the Old Gravesend Cemetery. The cemetery has been here at least since 1658, and probably since 1650! Today, the burial ground is one of the few reminders of the Dutch colonial town of Gravesend, chartered in 1645 for English quakers, and is one of the smallest cemeteries in New York City. The last known burial took place in this cemetery in the 1940s. A private family cemetery for the Van Sicklens is enclosed by a cast iron fence in the northwest corner of the larger cemetery. Old Gravesend Cemetery was listed in the New York and National Registers of Historic Places in 1980.The cemetery is part of the NYC Parks system. The main entrance gate is on Gravesend Neck Road and is typically locked.
The white house with the half-moon window below the front gable at 66 Gravesend Neck Road once served as a combination grocers' shop and post office. An historical photo from 1879 in the collection of James Ditta shows this building with an open-air, 1-story front porch where the enclosed porch is now (see the link below). A sign above the porch roof read "Post Office Grocery, Flour and Feed Store." Steps led up to the central doorway from the front and from one side of the porch. A number of men were on the porch in the photo, while a horse-drawn wagon with a man and boy was stopped on the dirt road in front of the store. Gravesend's first post office opened in 1843. The postmaster from 1869 to 1889 was Dr. Richard Lawrence Van Kleek, who also ran a private practice in Gravesend; he became physician to the Health Home in Coney Island in 1889. The building has been a private residence since the 1890s.
The white frame house at 38 Village Road North is one of the oldest houses in this part of Brooklyn. The 1.5-story side-gable cottage known as the Ryder-Van Cliff House (or the Lawrence Ryder House) was constructed circa 1840 by Lawrence Ryder (1808-1863), a local carpenter. His daughter Maria married a Van Cleef (sometimes spelled Van Cliff) in the 1860s and lived in her childhood home. The house's architectural style has evidence of Dutch influences. The house was moved about 100 feet in 1930 to make way for a schoolyard. The Ryder-Van Cleef House has been determined to be eligible for the National Register due to its age and its association with the former agricultural settlement of Gravesend.
The granite monument in Lady Moody Square enclosed by the iron fencing is the Gravesend Veterans Memorial. The memorial honors those who served in the American armed forces "to preserve life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Dedicated in 1983, the other side of the monument honors the founder of Gravesend, Lady Deborah Moody, an English widow who received a charter for the town from the Dutch colonial government in 1643. The triangular square named for Moody has been part of the New York City Parks system since 1938. Before the city acquired the square, a gas station occupied part of the triangle. Before that, a wood frame building stood here by the 1890s.
The historic wood frame home at 2138 McDonald Ave. (formerly "Gravesend Ave.") in Gravesend is the Hubbard House, believed to date to the 1820s or 1830s. The original builder may have been local carpenter Lawrence Ryder. The first resident may have been Nelly Hubbard, who owned the house on an 1849 map. The Hubbard House - also known as the Hubbard-Luchelli House, has two major sections. The 1.5-story section is the older (ca. 1830-1835) house, with original clapboards; the 2-story section was added in 1924 by the Luchelli family. The Hubbard House was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 and became a New York City landmark in 2009. It is one of the oldest Dutch style homes in New York City and one of the few that still stand in their original spot.
This Tour is a Walking Tour.
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Walk through the core of the Dutch colonial site of the Village of Gravesend, founded in the 1600s by Lady Moody, an English woman! Includes one of the oldest cemeteries in Brooklyn and some of the oldest houses in this Brooklyn neighborhood. Stop by a small park with a monument to Lady Moody and local war veterans.
