Gravesend Triangle

Gravesend Neck Rd., E. 2 St., Ave. V

Brooklyn

Directions via Google Maps

This text is part of Parks’ Historical Signs Project and can be found posted within the park.

What was here before?
This triangle is named for Gravesend, the first English settlement in New York. Founded in 1645 by Lady Deborah Moody (c.1583-1659), Gravesend was a self-sufficient community that lasted until 1894 when it was finally annexed by the City of Brooklyn.

Lady Deborah Moody, a wealthy Protestant widow, left England for America in 1639. She and fellow Anabaptists landed in New England but received a cold welcome from the Puritans who controlled the region. In 1643, she moved to New Amsterdam and on December 19, 1645 the Dutch governor granted Moody the first town charter written in English in the New World. With that charter, she founded the first English settlement in New York, at the southern end of Brooklyn.

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