A quick history of Dyker Heights
Today, Dyker Heights is a neighborhood of spacious and gracious private homes on tree-lined streets, but up until the mid-19th century, the area was a common woodland known by townsfolk as a great source for firewood and construction material.
The neighborhood lies within the 1657 boundaries of what was once the Dutch town of New Utrecht, but farmers neglected it at the time because the land was too sloped for farming. When the people of New Utrecht began cultivating market grain produce, trees in Dyker Heights were cleared for cabbages, potatoes, tomatoes and other produce.
In the late 1820s, Brigadier General Edward De Russy of the U.S. Army built Dyker Heights’s first house, a homestead, at the top of the hill at 11th Avenue and 82nd Street. From a military perspective, this tallest point in southwest Brooklyn, which offered a clear view of the harbor and its defenses, was an obvious strategic choice. In 1888, 23 years after De Russy died, his wife Helen sold the property to Jane Elisabeth Loveridge and Frederick Henry Johnson.