Priced out of Manhattan, people in search of quality townhouses started re-discovering Cobble Hill in the 1980s. Like its Carroll Gardens neighbor to the South, a predominantly Italian-American population throughout the early part of the 20th century has left a lasting impression with ethnic bakeries, restaurants, and cafes that are still in operation today. The 1980s film Moonstruck, which was filmed in an old bakery at Sackett & Henry Street, helped gain wider fame for this beloved and quaint neighborhood. Cobble Hill benefits by its highly desirable location, adjacent to Brooklyn Heights. It was designated as a Landmarked Historic District in 1969, making it one of the first in the city to receive such distinction. Handsome townhouses in the Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Romanesque Revival, French Neo-Grec, and Queen Ann styles were built here. The quantity and variety of these Brownstone townhomes are some of the best in any NYC neighborhood. The area today is characterized by a vibrant mix of ethnic, economic, and cultural diversity as a small, quiet, 40 block neighborhood, that sits adjacent to Brooklyn Heights on the north, Boerum Hill to the east, south to Carroll Gardens to, and the Columbia Street Waterfront District to the west.
CCobble Hill was settled by Dutch farmers in the 1640s as part of the city of New Amsterdam. A handful of Dutch settlers ventured across the East River to set up plantations, and bought nearly 1,000 acres of land east of present-day Court Street from the Native Americans and named the area Gowanus. It has been said that the Dutch named everything in New York, then left.The area known today as Cobble Hill takes its name after a high, conical shaped hill that Dutch Farmers called ‘Cobleshill’; located near the current intersection of Atlantic Avenue, Pacific, and Court Streets. The English took over the area around 1664 and created Kings County out of five original Dutch towns. Cobble Hill was part of the battlefield during he Battle of Brooklyn, one of the first major fights of the American Revolution in 1776. The Continental army’s Cobble Hill Fort was leveled by the British after the area fell. It was controlled by them until their withdrawal in 1783. In the 19th century the confluence of an economic boom catalyzed by the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, industrialization, a steady stream of immigration to New York City, the great fire of 1835, and the establishment of ferry service from the area to Manhattan in 1834; began to transform the farms into a residential suburb and a building boom from the 1830s to the 1890s.
