Brooklyn: Ave. V - 73rd St. E.
(1) Ave. V, at the S.W. corner of East 73rd Street, showing the Stoofhoff-Bergen house. The Bergen house stands on what was Bergen Island, which was granted in 1646 by Governor Kieft to Captain John Underhill, the famous New Englander whom was employed by Governor Kieft to fight the Pequot Indians. The island was then called by the Dutch "Meller's Island," and by the Indians "Wmbascoe," and was sold by Underhill to Thomas Spicer, who bought from the Indians what rights they then held. Spicer is said to have built the old house in 1656, soon after the erection of the Schenck-Crooke house. The house was bought of Spicer's heirs in 1665 for 125 guilders in wampum by Elbert Elbertsen, who came from North Brabant and owned six hundred acres in Flatlands. And later, through inheritance and purchase, the house came into the hands of John Bergen, whose heirs finally sold it to the speculators who laid out Bergen Beach in 1893. Johannes Bergen (1764-1824) added the east wing and in 1819 enlarged the main building; his son, Cornelius (1798-1865) added the west wing. Eugene L. Armbruster Collection. 1922. (2) The same, a view of the front with the east wing on the right. 1922. Eugene L. Armbruster Collection. (3) The same, showing the west wing in the foreground. 1922. Eugene L. Armbruster Collection. (4) The same, as No. 3. 1922. Eugene L. Armbruster Collection.
Photo from the New York Public Library - Milstein Collection
