The Dutch acquired the area now known as Red Hook when William Adrianse Bennet and Jacques Bentyn acquired the 930 acres of land from the Canarsee chief Gowane in 1636. They called it Roode Hoek, which meant Red Point (not hook), for the color of its soil and the shape of the land.
In the 1760s, the street called Red Hook Lane, originally a Canarsee trail, became a key route for the Continental Army. It ran all the way from what was then the center of Brooklyn, now Downtown Brooklyn, southwest through Dutch farms to Red Hook.
