Brooklyn · Area collection
Gravesend
Gravesend’s old town center survives in a burial ground and a few early houses. The cemetery, Van Sicklen House and Hubbard House help distinguish that center from today’s mapped neighborhood. The old township extended much farther.
Understanding Gravesend
Deborah Moody and fellow religious dissenters helped establish Gravesend with guarantees of religious freedom. The town’s four-part center and surrounding farm lots differed from later street grids. The old cemetery and surviving houses preserve only parts of that earlier settlement.
Places to explore
Old Gravesend Cemetery
Gravesend Neck Road and McDonald Avenue areaMoody’s burial here has not been firmly established. The cemetery preserves evidence of the old town, including early family burials.
Van Sicklen House
Across from the old cemeteryThis stone-built Dutch-American house occupies part of an early house lot associated with Moody. That land association does not establish that she lived in the surviving building.
Hubbard House
2138 McDonald AvenueIts low gabled form and clapboard recall a later phase of Dutch-American farmhouse building. The house keeps its old orientation amid the modern grid.
Planning a visit
View the houses from the public street; no interior entry is offered. Consult Parks for current cemetery visiting arrangements, because historical designation does not establish when its gates are open.
Sources and visitor information
- Old Gravesend Cemetery designationNYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
- Van Sicklen House designationNYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
- Hubbard House designationNYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
- 2020 Neighborhood Tabulation Areas (NTAs), NYC Open Data 26BNYC Department of City Planning / NYC Open Data