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Kings Highway is a broad avenue that curves about the southern part of the Borough of Brooklyn in New York City. Its west end is at Bay Parkway and 78th Street. East of Ocean Avenue, the street is largely residential. It tracks eastward, then northeast, then north through Brooklyn and reaches East 98th Street in central Brooklyn. At that point, it flows into Howard Avenue to provide seamless access to Eastern Parkway, another major road in Brooklyn with side medians and service roads.
A Business Improvement District has been established along part of the road to support stores, restaurants and businesses in that area. [1]
Originally an Indian trail, the strip was known as "Mechawanienck" or "the ancient pathway", a name recorded in a 1652 deed. It was later known as the "wagon path" in a 1682 deed. [2]
Although not entirely built in 1704, "King's Highway" was formed in colonial New York when the locals connected the many smaller established roads, cow paths, and Indian trails that passed through Kings County. They named the highway after the county, which was named in honor of King Charles II of England on November 1, 1683.
Originally, Kings Highway was much longer than it is now. It began at Brooklyn Ferry, now called Fulton Ferry, where Ferry Road, now called Old Fulton Street and Furman Street, ran southeastward to the small Dutch town of New Amersfoort, now known as Flatlands. It took a sharp westward turn at that point and passed into another of Brooklyn's original six towns, New Utrecht. It led into Yellow Hook (Bay Ridge), ending at Denyse's Ferry, operated by a colonial-era landowner, about where Shore Road and 86th Street meet today. In southwest Brooklyn, the thoroughfare had other names, including: "State Road," "Road from Fort Hamilton to New Utrecht," and "Road from New Utrecht to Denyse's Ferry."
According to the Dyker Heights Historical Society, the Highway ended at the ferry landing in what is now Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn. In 1740 Denyse, a local New Utrecht resident, took over ferry operations in The Narrows, serving Brooklyn and Staten Island. Denyse’s Ferry was located at the base of the hill on which Fort Hamilton was built, near today’s Fort Hamilton Parkway and Shore Road. Kings Highway traveled northeast from Denyse’s Ferry to present-day 86th Street. This portion of the Highway is known today as Fort Hamilton Parkway.
At the corner of Kings Highway and 86th Street stood New Utrecht Town Hall, built in 1878 (demolished in 1912). This building was also used as a school, police station, and jail. Kings Highway traveled northeast, at about a 40-degree angle to the street grid, until it reached the middle of 81st Street between Eleventh and Twelfth Avenues. At the intersection of the current-day 81st Street and Eleventh Avenue, Denyse’s Lane branched off in a northwardly direction. St. Phillips Church in Dyker Heights now occupies part of the former lane, which meandered down to Van Brunt’s Dock in Bay Ridge. Closer to Bay Ridge, Denyse’s Lane was known as Van Brunt’s Lane, today's 79th Street.
The highest natural point in southwestern Brooklyn is at Eleventh Avenue and 82nd Street, at Dyker Heights. During the time of Kings Highway, the hill was known as New Utrecht Mount. According to the Brooklyn Eagle, it gave “the soldiers of revolutionary time an outlook from which they could note the movements of their opponents, not only as they approached from the sea, but maneuvered on Staten Island.”[ citation needed ] At 81st Street and Twelfth Avenue was Flax Pond. This site was filled in and developed; it is now occupied by Junior High School (JHS) 201.
After the pond, Kings Highway traveled southeast until it reached Waters Avenue, which ran between Thirteenth and Fourteenth avenues from 83rd Street until it reached the Dyker Meadows. At Fourteenth Avenue, Kings Highway meandered around the northern limits of the Dyker Meadows Swamp, which occupied much of the block between Fourteenth and Fifteenth avenues between 83rd and 84th streets. From Sixteenth Avenue to Eighteenth Avenue, Kings Highway ran on a slight diagonal; this section appears in today’s street grid as 84th Street.
At Sixteenth Avenue is the cemetery where the original New Utrecht Reformed Church of 1700 stood. At Eighteenth Avenue is the church of 1828. At this 1828 church, the Highway made an abrupt 90 degree leftward turn and traveled northward one and a half blocks (as part of today’s Eighteenth Avenue) until it made another abrupt 90 degree turn, this time eastward. It was built around the Van Pelt Manor House of 1686. In 1741 a Milestone was placed in front of the home to indicate the distances to New York City (8+1⁄4 miles), to Denyse’s Ferry (2+1⁄2 miles), and to Jamaica, Queens (15 miles). [3] Kings Highway continued east into the Town of Gravesend, Brooklyn. According to the Brooklyn Eagle, in the 19th century, Kings Highway “was one of the best and most convenient thoroughfares for the lovers of riding and driving.”[ citation needed ]
The British General Lord Cornwallis traveled along the road with his troops on August 26, 1776, to the Battle of Brooklyn. He achieved a major defeat for the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. When President George Washington came to survey the agricultural abilities of Kings, Queens, and Suffolk counties after the war in 1792, he traveled down this rural road. Gradually, farmers moved into the area and developed their homesteads along the road.
Though the road was the major highway running through the towns of Brooklyn, Flatbush, Flatlands, Gravesend and New Utrecht, it did not have a commonly used name until the 19th century, when the portion from Brooklyn Ferry to Flatbush came to be called Flatbush Road, now Flatbush Avenue. It was often referred to simply as “lane” or “road,” followed by a short description. Thus it would be described as “the lane between Gravesend and New Utrecht.” It also took on local names in each town, such as “Gravesend Lane” and “Ferry Road.” The name “Kings Highway” was a common reference to public highways during colonial times and has been used for other roads around the New York City area that are in no way connected with the present Kings Highway.
Despite its long history and importance as a connection through the borough of Brooklyn, in the early 1920s local city planners proposed to have the street demapped as part of an effort to regularize the street grid. Instead, it was widened in 1922, east of Ocean Avenue where park malls were created. The route was altered to straighten as many sections as possible, and to make it easy for vehicle traffic.
Following the example of the parkways designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (1822–1903), who designed the Eastern and Ocean parkways, the boulevard malls were planted with trees to separate local and through traffic along the street. Unlike Olmsted’s parkways, however, the Kings Highway malls are much narrower because existing development constrained their size; they do not provide the leisurely promenades that characterize Olmsted’s work.
Kings Highway is served by the following bus routes:
The street is also served by the following New York City Subway stations:
Dyker Heights is a predominantly residential neighborhood in the southwest corner of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. It is on a hill between Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Borough Park, and Gravesend Bay. The neighborhood is bounded by 7th and 14th Avenues, 65th Street, and the Belt Parkway on the west, east, north, and south, respectively.
The Belt Parkway is the name given to a series of controlled-access parkways that form a belt-like circle around the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. The Belt Parkway comprises three of the four parkways in what is known as the Belt System: the Shore Parkway, the Southern Parkway, and the Laurelton Parkway. The three parkways in the Belt Parkway are a combined 25.29 miles (40.70 km) in length. The Cross Island Parkway makes up the fourth parkway in the system, but is signed separately.
New Utrecht was a town in western Long Island, New York encompassing all or part of the present-day Bath Beach, Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Borough Park, Dyker Heights and Fort Hamilton neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York City. New Utrecht was established in 1652 by Dutch settlers in the Dutch colony of New Netherland, the last of the original six towns to be founded in Kings County. New Utrecht ceased to exist in 1894 when it was annexed by the City of Brooklyn, and became part of the City of Greater New York when Brooklyn joined as a borough in 1898.
Bath Beach is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, located at the southwestern edge of the borough on Gravesend Bay. The neighborhood borders Bensonhurst and New Utrecht to the northeast across 86th Street; Dyker Beach Park and Golf Course to the northwest across 14th Avenue; and Gravesend to the east across Stillwell Avenue.
Flatbush Avenue is a major avenue in the New York City Borough of Brooklyn. It runs from the Manhattan Bridge south-southeastward to Jamaica Bay, where it joins the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, which connects Brooklyn to the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens. The north end was extended from Fulton Street to the Manhattan Bridge as "Flatbush Avenue Extension".
Fulton Street is a long east–west street in northern Brooklyn, New York City. This street begins at the intersection of Adams Street and Joralemon Street in Brooklyn Heights, and runs eastward to East New York and Cypress Hills. At the border with Queens, Fulton Street becomes 91st Avenue, which ends at 84th Street in Woodhaven.
Community boards of Brooklyn are New York City community boards in the borough of Brooklyn, which are the appointed advisory groups of the community districts that advise on land use and zoning, participate in the city budget process, and address service delivery in their district.
Bay Parkway is a 2.7-mile-long (7.82 km) boulevard in the west portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn.
The Nassau Electric Railroad was an electric street railway company in the U.S. state of New York. The company operated throughout the borough of Brooklyn, as well as over the Brooklyn Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge into Manhattan.
The B63 is a bus route in Brooklyn, New York City, running mainly along Fifth Avenue and Atlantic Avenue between Fort Hamilton and Cobble Hill. Originally a streetcar line called the Fifth Avenue Line, it is now operated by the New York City Transit Authority as the Fifth/Atlantic Avenues bus.
The B82 bus route constitutes a public transit line in central Brooklyn, New York City. It connects Starrett City in southeast Brooklyn with Coney Island on Brooklyn's southwestern coast. The B82 operates primarily via Kings Highway and Flatlands Avenue in southern Brooklyn. The route is operated by MTA Regional Bus Operations, under the New York City Bus and Select Bus Service brands.
The Q35 bus route constitutes a public transit line in southeast Brooklyn as well as the Rockaway Peninsula of southern Queens in New York City. The Q35 is operated by MTA Regional Bus Operations under the MTA Bus Company brand, but was formerly privately operated by Green Bus Lines. The bus provides service between Midwood in central Brooklyn to Rockaway Park on the Rockaway Peninsula, running mainly along Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn and Newport Avenue on the Rockaway Peninsula. The route utilizes the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge to cross between Brooklyn and Queens.
Nostrand Avenue is a major street in Brooklyn, New York, that runs for 8 miles (13 km) north from Emmons Avenue in Sheepshead Bay to Flushing Avenue in Williamsburg, where it continues as Lee Avenue. It occupies the position of East 30th Street in the Brooklyn street grid. The street is named after the 17th century Dutch settler Gerret Noorstrandt.
Flatlands Avenue is a major street in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It runs approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) east-west, from Avenue N and East 35th Street in Flatlands in the west to Forbell Street, east of Fountain Avenue in East New York, near the Brooklyn-Queens border. The right-of-way continues in Lindenwood and Howard Beach, Queens as 156th Avenue, separated by the remnants of Spring Creek. The portion of Flatlands Avenue east of Louisiana Avenue in East New York was previously mapped as Fairfield Avenue.
Cropsey Avenue is a major street in Brooklyn, New York City. It generally runs northwest-southeast, from Poly Place/14th Avenue in Bath Beach to Neptune Avenue/West 17th Street in Coney Island. It forms the northeastern boundary of Dreier-Offerman Park.
The Dyker Beach Park and Golf Course is a public park and a municipal, 18-hole, championship golf course in the southernmost part of Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, in New York City, United States. The area stretches from the Belt Parkway in the south to 86th Street in the north, between 7th Avenue on the west and 14th Avenue on the east.
McDonald Avenue is a north-south street in Brooklyn, New York City. The avenue runs about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) between the intersection of 86th Street and Shell Road in Gravesend, north to 20th Street and 10th Avenue in Windsor Terrace. It runs underneath the New York City Subway's IND Culver Line for most of its length.