Until the mid-1600s, what is today the private community of Sea Gate was the tip of the Canarsee Indian village of Narriockh. In 1645, when Lady Moody received the charter for the town of Gravesend, she and her followers acquired land from the Indians that included Sea Gate.
During the mid-1840s, Michael Norton, a corrupt politician, opened Norton and Murray’s Pavilion at Norton’s Point, where Sea Gate is today. For two decades, Norton’s Point was a hot spot for gamblers and thieves, once serving as a hideout for William Marcy (Boss) Tweed after he escaped from prison.
William K. Ziegler, president of the Royal Baking Powder Company then bought a portion of the land in 1888 and the president of Sea Beach Railroad Aldrick Man proposed him a plan to develop Sea Gate as an upper-class neighborhood.
Despite Jewish residents now making up a large part of the neighborhood’s population, the Sea Gate Association oversaw the development of the community that once did not allow Jews to buy homes in the area.
A private community was then born as gates were raised and a 12-foot-high fence was installed to the water’s edge.
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.