The site of Bedford was acquired by the Dutch West India Company in the 1630s and 1640s from the Canarsee Indians, but as early as 1790, more than a quarter of its residents were of African descent.

The area was primarily used for farming throughout the 18th century and was occupied by British troops after the Battle of Brooklyn in the Revolutionary War.

When slavery was abolished in New York State in 1827, blacks still found it difficult to buy land, but their persistence made them successful in eventually buying.

William Thomas and James Weeks, both African-Americans, bought land in the 1830s that would eventually become the settlements of Carrville and Weeksville, encompassing an area almost as large as modern-day Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Transportation innovations of the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad in 1836 brought in Irish, German, Jewish, Scottish and Dutch Americans. New immigrants from Europe, the south United States and the Caribbean then moved in after the subway reached the area in 1936.

The increased population made housing scarce and unemployment prevalent with landlords lacking the funds for upkeep on their buildings.

With grassroots advocacy in its roots though, Bedford-Stuyvesant picked itself back up with the help of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and other advocates who created a legacy of landmarked historical sites.

Bensonhurst’s 18th Avenue (Cristoforo Colombo Boulevard) is the site of the annual Feast of Santa Rosalia. The feast honors the patron saint of Palermo, Sicily.

18th Avenue has been co-named Cristoforo Colombo Boulevard since 1987 for the neighborhood’s large Italian presence. The busy street is now lined with Chinese businesses outnumbering the Italian ones.

A woman separates grapes outside a Chinese market on Bay Parkway.

Catering to the growing Chinese population, the market’s pricing is labeled in two languages.

Villabate Alba bakery has been a mainstay in the community. Run by the Alaimo family for over 40 years, the shop is named after the owners’ hometown of Villabate, Sicily.

Italian words erupt from a table in Seth Low Square where local residents play Dominoes.

Sharing Seth Low Square with Italian Dominoes players, a group of Asian residents sit across the way playing cards and Chinese Chess.

Open since 1953, Lenny’s Pizza was made famous by the film Saturday Night Fever. John Travolta’s character in the film, Tony Manero, ordered two slices from the window and ate them together in a “double-decker” fashion.

Many of Bensonhurst’s dwellings are low red-brick buildings.

Superman breaks through the front of Steve Campanella’s famous home on 85th Street. The retired Marine and collector has the house decked out in figurines and life-sized fiberglass figures.

Campanella’s driveway is filled with characters the likes of Batman, Betty Boop, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, Frankenstein and the Statue of Liberty.

The landmarked New Utrecht Reformed Church is the fourth oldest Reformed Church in Brooklyn, serving as a house of faith since 1677.

How Bensonhurst Got Its Name

By Norm Goldstein

Cornelis van Werkhoven, who worked for the Dutch West India Company, acquired a huge amount of land from the Nyack Indians in 1652, trading for it with six shirts, two pairs of shoes, six pairs of socks, six hatchets, six knives, scissors and combs. The Dutch called the area Yellow Hook, for the color of the clay found there.

Five years later, New Utrecht became one of the original towns of Brooklyn and was named for van Werkhoven’s native home of Utrecht, in the Netherlands.

Originally, New Utrecht stretched from the southern tip of Green-Wood Cemetery down to Gravesend Bay and included today’s Bensonhurst, part of Bath Beach, Bay Ridge, Fort Hamilton, Dyker Heights and Borough Park.

Bensonhurst gets its name from Arthur W. Benson, the former president of Brooklyn Gas, and one of the original investors in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. He began buying up farmland in the area in 1835. Then the Benson family later divided up their property and sold parcels to developer James Lynch, on the condition that the land bear the family name. Lynch created a gated community called “Bensonhurst by the Sea.”

New Utrecht was annexed to City of Brooklyn in1894. When the 4th Avenue subway line was extended to the area in 1915, it brought new residents and many of the large homes, including the Benson family homestead, were razed to build brick row houses and apartment buildings. Bensonhurst lost its status as a “gated” community and shortened its name to Bensonhurst.

Historic New Utrecht remains as a small part of Bensonhurst.

Brooklyn-born Norm Goldstein is retired, after working 44 years for the Associated Press, the global news agency, where he served as a reporter, feature writer, editor, author and administrator. He also worked for AP as director of Educational Services and editor of the AP Stylebook.

He graduated from Brooklyn College and the Penn State Graduate School of Journalism.

He currently lives in Brooklyn Heights.