The first inhabitants of Brooklyn were the Lenape Indians. The first European settlement in the crown heights vicinity was established in 1664 when Peter Stuyvesant gave Thomas Lambert land in exchange for the village of New Bedford just north of Crown Heights. In the early nineteenth century crown heights was deemed as “no man’s land”. The Lenape Indians had eventually been expelled or murdered and the only remainder was squatters. The first settlement in crown heights was called “Weeksville”. It was named after James Weeks who purchased two lots of land on the corner of Troy Ave and Dean Street. Weeksville was an attempt by black Americans to fine their own sense of place and a means to secure political rights. Weeksville flourished but …show more content…
New immigrants moved in and the residences of Crow Hill and Weeksville who had no rights to ownership were moved out. The development of “Crown Street” in 1916 was when Crown heights became the accepted name for the area. A pre-World War 2 Crown Heights was home to a pre-dominantly white community. The largest group was secular Jews from Eastern Europe. Crown heights started out as a residential neighborhood that was home for the upper-class. Along eastern parkway was once the home for many upper class residences. The closer to the parkway the more upper class you were deemed. Crown heights was originally seen as of New York’s most premiere neighborhoods. Contrary to other neighborhood areas crown heights had had rapid growing subway configurations and other advances. Beginning in early 1900’s Crown heights had many upper class homes. Post-war changes re-shaped the demographic and geographical makeup of the neighborhood. From the 1920’s to World War 2 Crown Heights was a distinctly white immigrant neighborhood, predominantly Jewish. The large rest group was secular Jews from Eastern Europe. There were approximately 75000 Jewish people living in crown heights which made it the hub for Jewish life. The neighborhood experienced cultural changes beginning in the 1920’s. New comers entered from all over the West