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Cobble Hill, Brooklyn: A Name Revived in 1959

Cobble Hill, New York

Kane Street Synagogue
— Hank Gans of http://www.hankgans.com, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cobble Hill is named for a conical hill — recorded as Cobleshill, and also as Ponkiesbergh — that once stood at roughly the present intersection of Atlantic Avenue, Pacific Street and Court Street. Dutch farmers settled the ground in the 1640s, following land grants from Willem Kieft. The name itself had died out by the 1880s and was only formally revived in 1959, a decade before the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Cobble Hill Historic District on December 20, 1969. Beneath Atlantic Avenue, between Columbia Street and Boerum Place, runs a railway tunnel begun as an open cut in May 1844 and opened that December to give the Long Island Rail Road a grade-separated right-of-way to South Ferry.

The tunnel, the district, and the churches

The Atlantic Avenue Tunnel, also called the Cobble Hill Tunnel, was fully operational by the middle of 1845 and was roofed over roughly five years after it opened. Guinness World Records is among the sources citing it as the oldest railway tunnel beneath a city street in North America. It is not listed here as a visitable site.

The historic district above it, designated on December 20, 1969 and extended on June 7, 1988, is roughly bounded by Atlantic Avenue and Court, Degraw and Hicks Streets, and is separately listed on the National Register of Historic Places from June 11, 1976. Four churches stand within it: Christ Church and Holy Family, by Richard Upjohn, 1841-42; Old St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church, by Gamaliel King, 1838, with later additions; the former Strong Place Baptist Church by Minard Lafever, 1851-52, now St. Francis Cabrini Chapel; and the former Middle Dutch Reformed Church of 1855-56, now the Kane Street Synagogue.

That congregation, Baith Israel Anshei Emes, was founded in 1856 and rented space at 155 Atlantic Street before building the first purpose-built synagogue in Brooklyn, at State Street and Boerum Place, in 1862. It bought the Kane Street building in 1905; the 1908 merger with Talmud Torah Anshei Emes, which gave the congregation its present name, came three years after that purchase.

On the neighborhood's northern side, Long Island College Hospital ceased operations on August 30, 2014. The site was redeveloped as the multi-tower River Park complex, and NYU Langone acquired the property in March 2020.

Getting there

Bergen Street, at Bergen and Smith Streets, sits on the boundary of Boerum Hill and Cobble Hill and is served by the F and G.

Carroll Street, at Carroll and Smith Streets, is also served by the F and G, but it is in Carroll Gardens, adjacent to Cobble Hill rather than inside it.

NYC Ferry's South Brooklyn route has called at the Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 6 landing since June 2017. That landing sits on Cobble Hill's border with Brooklyn Heights rather than squarely inside the neighborhood.

What's here

Questions

How do I get to Cobble Hill?

Bergen Street, on the F and G at Bergen and Smith Streets, sits on the boundary of Boerum Hill and Cobble Hill. Carroll Street, also on the F and G, is placed by the sources used here in Carroll Gardens, next to Cobble Hill rather than in it. NYC Ferry's South Brooklyn route calls at the Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 6 landing on the Brooklyn Heights border.

What is the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel?

A railway tunnel beneath Atlantic Avenue between Columbia Street and Boerum Place, begun as an open cut in May 1844 and opened on December 3, 1844 to give the Long Island Rail Road a grade-separated right-of-way to South Ferry. It was fully operational by mid-1845 and roofed over about five years after opening. Guinness World Records is among the sources citing it as the oldest railway tunnel beneath a city street in North America.

Where can I stay near Cobble Hill?

No hotel is listed here; the lodging list is left empty rather than borrowed from Brooklyn Heights or Downtown Brooklyn. 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge, at 60 Furman Street, is in Brooklyn Heights — the neighborhood on whose border the Pier 6 ferry landing sits.

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