The neighborhood that is known today as East New York started out as Ostwout, Dutch for East Woods. It was settled in 1670 by a group of Dutch farmers who came from the Old Lots section of what is now Flatbush, and they renamed it New Lots.
The Schenk family was among the early settlers. Johannes Schenk built a stone house there in 1705, and his descendants lived there until 1906.
During the Revolutionary War, the Battle of Brooklyn in 1776, invading British forces came upon Howard’s Halfway House at Atlantic and Alabama avenues. It was so named because it was halfway for travelers headed to Long Island.
The Redcoats pressed the innkeeper and his son to guide them through the area, thus allowing them to pass through the northwestern edge of New Lots and attack the American army from the rear, quickly forcing the Continental Army to retreat across the East River.
New Lots was incorporated as a town in 1832, when it encompassed the villages of East New York, Cypress Hills and the area that later became Brownsville. It was annexed to the City of Brooklyn in 1886.
The area remained primarily rural until development began in 1835 through the enterprise of John R. Pitkin, a Connecticut merchant. Pitkin bought land north of New Lots Avenue and named the area East New York, since it was at the eastern end of New York City.
While the mantra for an expanding United States was “go west,” in Brooklyn, development progressed to the east.
A major catalyst was transportation. The Williamsburg Bridge opened in 1903, and the IRT subway reached New Lots in 1922, leading to population growth and development.
The neighborhood includes Starrett at Spring Creek, originally known as Starrett City when the huge apartment complex was built in 1972.
