Carroll Gardens is a neighborhood in the northwestern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Encompassing approximately 40 city blocks, it is bounded by Degraw and Warren Streets (north), Hoyt and Smith Streets (east), Ninth Street or the Gowanus Expressway (south), and Interstate 278, the Gowanus and Brooklyn–Queens Expressways (west).Ellin, Nan. "Carroll Gardens" in , p.107."Carroll Gardens" on Google Maps. Retrieved February 20, 2015. The neighborhoods that surround it are Cobble Hill to the northwest, Boerum Hill to the northeast, Gowanus to the east, Red Hook to the south and southwest, and the Columbia Street Waterfront District to the west.Map at Jackson and Manbeck (2004), p.xxxi.
Originally considered to be part of the area once known as South Brooklyn (or, more specifically, Red Hook), the area started to have its own identity in the 1960s. The neighborhood was named after Charles Carroll, the only Roman Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, and whose name was already attached to Carroll Street and Carroll Park. The name also reflects the large front gardens of brownstones in the Carroll Gardens Historic District and elsewhere in the neighborhood. Despite having an Irish surname, in recent times it has been known as an Italian American neighborhood.
Carroll Gardens is part of Brooklyn Community District 6, and its primary ZIP Code is 11231. It is patrolled by the 76th Precinct of the New York City Police Department. and is served by the New York City Fire Department's Engine Company 239, Engine Co. 279/Ladder Co. 131 and Engine Company 202/Ladder Company 101. Politically, Carroll Gardens is represented by the New York City Council's 39th District.Current City Council Districts for Kings County, New York City. Accessed May 5, 2017.
History 19th century Carroll Gardens was settled in the 19th century by immigrants from Ireland escaping the Potato Famine. They established the early Catholic roots of the neighborhood, including opening St. Stephen's Church in 1866. Beginning in the middle of the century, Norwegian immigrants were attracted by work at the docks and surrounding Red Hook area."Carroll Gardens, a Cozy Brooklyn Locale" Ctty (July 24, 2014). They founded two churches, the Norwegian Seaman's Church (formerly the Westminster Presbyterian Church), now apartments, and the Norwegian Methodist Episcopal Church (formerly the Carroll Park Methodist Episcopal Church, no longer extant).
The development of the South Brooklyn area, including Carroll Gardens, was aided by the foundation in 1846 by philanthropists Henry Pierrepont and Jacob E. Leroy of the Hamilton Avenue Ferry. Its purpose was to improve transportation to the newly created Green-Wood Cemetery, but horse car service, and later trolley lines, connecting to the ferry ran through Carroll Gardens, enabling businessmen who lived there to commute more easily to work in Manhattan.
In the late 1840s, Carroll Park, Brooklyn's third-oldest park, a block-long area of playgrounds, walkways, and sitting areas between Court, Smith, Carroll, and President Streets was built. Originally a private garden, it was purchased by the city in 1853, and was named after Charles Carroll in honor of his Maryland regiment, which had helped to defend the area during the Battle of Long Island in the American Revolutionary War."Carroll Park" on the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation website. Retrieved October 1, 2007.Donovan, Aaron. "If You're Thinking of Living In/Carroll Gardens; Area of Gardens and 19th-Century Charm", The New York Times(May 12, 2002). Retrieved October 1, 2007.
In 1846, surveyor Richard Butt planned gardens in front of the brownstone houses in the oldest section of the neighborhood when he developed it. The homes are set farther back from the street than is common in Brooklyn, and the large gardens became an iconic depiction of the neighborhood. The same year, a law was passed requiring that all buildings between Henry Street and Smith Street have between the building and the street for "courtyards".Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association website Retrieved June 6, 2014. The large gardens can be seen from First to Fourth Place between Henry and Smith Streets, as well as on President, Carroll, and Second Streets between Smith and Hoyt Streets.
Further development of the Carroll Gardens was aided by the draining in the late 1860s of the swampland which surrounded Gowanus Creek through the deepening and dredging of the Creek to create the Gowanus Canal. This provoked land speculation and a building boom throughout the area. It was during this period, from the late 1860s to the early 1880s, that the area which is now the Carroll Gardens Historic District began to be developed.
20th century Italian immigrants began coming to the neighborhood in the late 19th century – dock workers and workers in the Brooklyn Navy Yard – continuing through the 1950s, which led to much of the Irish population of the area leaving beginning in the 1920s. The rise of the Italian population provoked questions about the role of the Mafia in the neighborhood. One theory has it that Carroll Gardens, which lies between a territory traditionally controlled by the Gambino crime family and one controlled by the Colombo family, is considered to be neutral territory, and has been, for the most part, left alone.
Carroll Gardens had long been considered to be part of either the larger area referred to as South Brooklyn, or the neighborhood known as Red Hook. That neighborhood had an informal division in the 1930s and 1940s along Hamilton Avenue, with kids from south of the avenue, mostly of Italian descent, calling themselves "Hookers" or "Hookies" after Red Hook, and kids north of the street, mostly Irish, in what would now be Carroll Gardens called "Creekers" or "Creekies" after the now-drained Gowanus Creek. Violence between the two groups was common. The division between the neighborhoods became even stronger beginning in the late 1940s when Robert Moses built the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the Gowanus Expressway, which started the process of the Carroll Gardens area taking on a separate and distinct character of its own; the neighborhood's name came from the Carroll Gardens Association, which had been created to advocate for neighborhood improvements.Fioravante, Janice. "If You're Thinking of Living In/Carroll Gardens; A Neighborly Neighborhood in Brooklyn", The New York Times, March 5, 1995. Retrieved November 12, 2017. "Until the 1960s, the neighborhood was considered part of Brooklyn's Red Hook section. Then, partly in response to the flight of many people to the suburbs, neighborhood residents formed an organization to improve the area; they called it the Carroll Gardens Association. When, also in the 60's, the neighborhood was cut off from Red Hook by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, it took its new name from the association."
In the 1960s, young middle-class professionals began to be attracted to the Carroll Garden area due to its convenience to Manhattan, where many of them worked, and its growing reputation as a safe and quiet place to live. This began the gentrification of the neighborhood, and a response from older residents, who did not appreciate these "hippie" newcomers who had no ties to the community. Regardless, the neighborhood gradually received its own name at that time,"Carroll Gardens" in Jackson and Manbeck (2004), pp. 54–57. and the Carroll Gardens Association was formed in 1964. One result was that the decades-long control of the area by a political machine was ended.
Today, Carroll Gardens is predominantly upper middle-class, while Red Hook, which had retained its working-class, waterfront ambiance, has only recently begun to feel the effects of gentrification."Red Hook" in Jackson and Manbeck (2004), pp. 187–190. However, the two neighborhoods have historically both been working-class and a mix of working-class Italian-American, African-American, and Hispanic-American residents, as well as more recent Arab-American immigrant families. As late as the 1990s, several highly publicized incidents of violence underscored the tension between working-class African-Americans from Red Hook and working-class Italian-American residents of Carroll Gardens.
21st century Carroll Gardens is still largely known as an Italian-American neighborhood, but the Italian population has decreased in recent years from 52 percent of the population in 1980 to 22 percent in 2012. Still, despite the decline in the Italian segment of the population and the effects of gentrification, the neighborhood remains a strongly Italian one. Italians in the neighborhood often play bocce games, speak several dialects of Italian, and operate many Italian restaurants and shops, as well as join fraternal and benevolent associations attached to specific towns in Italy. The Roman Catholicism of the Italian population is still evident in the many shrines, especially to the Virgin Mary, which can be seen in front gardens in the neighborhood, and the 70-year tradition of an Our Lady of Sorrows procession celebrating Good Friday continues. Adult children who had moved away from Carroll Gardens have started returning to the neighborhood to raise their children.
The area has seen an increase in French immigrants starting in the 21st century. Carroll Gardens and the surrounding neighborhoods are sometimes referred to as "Little France" or "Little Paris" due to the growing French population.Semple, Kirk. "A Big Advocate of French in New York's Schools: France", The New York Times, January 30, 2014. Retrieved February 27, 2018. "Carroll Gardens, and the adjoining neighborhoods of Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill, are now dotted with French-owned cafes and restaurants. Smith Street, a main road, is blocked off every year on Bastille Day for a street fair: The tricolor flies from shopfronts, boules are played, crepes are eaten. The area, predictably, has been called Little France and Little Paris." Bastille Day celebrations are held on July 14 of each year.Szabla, C. "The Italians, the French, and the Catholic Shrines of Brooklyn" Maisonneuve(December 6, 2011).Hays, Elizabeth. "Brooklyn's old Italian stronghold is becoming more and more French" New York Daily News (March 9, 2009). International School of Brooklyn, a Nursery-8th grade independent school, offers a French and Spanish language immersion program. One of the public schools in Carroll Gardens, The Carroll School (P.S. 58), also has one of the area's French dual-language programs, which was one of the first such French programs at a public school in the city. A Catholic mass in French is said every Sunday at the St. Agnes Church in Carroll Gardens. This initiative of the Diocese of Brooklyn occurred after the neighboring Archdiocese of New York, incurred the wrath of French worshipers in Manhattan by deciding to close the French national parish of St. Vincent de Paul Church. French expatriates operate several restaurants and shops in the neighborhood, including La Cigogne, Café Luluc, Provence en boite, French Louie, Chez Moi, and Bar Tabac.
Carroll Gardens Historic District
The development of what is now the Carroll Gardens Historic District began in the 1870s, due in part to its proximity to Carroll Park. The district was created by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1973. It includes houses located in a rough rectangle bounded by Carroll, President, Smith, and Hoyt Streets, as well as the western ends of the two blocks between President Street and First Street. The district includes some of the finest examples of brownstones with large front gardens."Carroll Gardens Historic District Designation Report" New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (September 25, 1973).
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