New York is America's premier tourism attraction. It's the port of entry for virtually every European tourist who comes to these shores. And it certainly is a favorite for U.S. tourists as well. When they arrive, there are the standard things for them to see: Radio City, the Empire State Building, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, perhaps the Museum of Modern Art and maybe a Broadway Play are all on the "A" list. But more seasoned travelers might look for new experiences in the four boroughs that make up New York outside of Manhattan.

It's a fact that, to most of us, New York is defined by Manhattan. We think of incredibly high apartment rentals, of penthouses, of Broadway, of ultra-chic restaurants and clubs, of people in full dress and designer gowns. But there's a different, much more down-to-earth New York. It's part of the city defined by those other four boroughs. Mention the Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Queens to someone from middle America and you draw a blank stare. Mention tree-lined streets where people park cars in front of their houses and their eyes glaze over. That's not the New York that is being sold by the high pressure ad agencies and by TV programs.

Instead, it's the place that the majority of people living in New York actually call home. And living there is much like living in Topeka or Eugene, Oregon. The four "bedroom" boroughs don't have the cache of Manhattan, but they are, indeed, the real New York. Exploring them can yield unexpected pleasure. For tourists who are history buffs, there are things to learn that might even win a few trivia contests.

For example, here's a sure winner if youŒre into trivia questions. "What's the name of the first battle fought by the United States against the British in the American Revolution?" You might select from the following four answers: (1) Bunker Hill (2) Lexington and Concord (3) Boston (4) Brooklyn. The answer, to everyone's surprise, is (4) Brooklyn.

The catch in this question lies in the words "United States." Since the first three battles listed were fought during the Colonial period and since the United States didn't exist until after the Declaration of Independence, no battle fought before July 4, 1776 was fought by an army that could claim the name of the United States. The first battle fought after that was known variously as the "Battle of Long Island" or the "Battle of Brooklyn."

The point of this exercise is a visit we recently paid to J.J. Byrne Park, a small green space in Brooklyn. In it, besides a kids' playground, some dusty benches and a few blades of grass, is a small old stone structure. It's called, on the attached historical plaque, "The Old Stone House." The plaque carries its interesting history and the fact that it survived since 1699 in a similar, though not identical, setting. It began as a farm house built with two-foot thick stone walls in the Dutch manner for a farmer named Claes Arentson Vechte. Besides the few crops he grew, Vechte dug for clams in the mud flats of the East River and the Gowanus Channel. His house was located at the center of his farm in the village of Gowanus in the quaint city of Breukelen in Dutch New Amsterdam.

This was the same Dutch community that yielded Rip Van Winkle and a family named Roosevelt. Nearby, the Dutch discovered a large rabbit population on a small island which they named for the Dutch word for Rabbit. Konje Island has become known, in an Anglicized form, as Coney Island, and it's no longer populated by rabbits, but by Nathan's Hot Dogs, a smattering of boardwalks and beaches that are quite popular with Manhattanites.

Eventually the Dutch gave up their claim to Breukelen and the British renamed it Brooklyn. During August 1776, about six weeks after the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, a fledgling United States Army under the leadership of the untried General George Washington was defending New York and Long Island against an invasion of British troops sailing south from Halifax, Nova Scotia under British generals Gage, Cornwallis and others. The Redcoats landed on Long Island and they took positions near the harbor on the East River in New York. Part of that area was Brooklyn.

Two thousand British and Hessian mercenaries headquartered in this tiny house and established an artillery position around the house. Their guns pounded Washington's troops who were trying to escape across the river and, ultimately, into New Jersey. Many Manhattanites still try to do the same thing and, though they aren't bombarded by British guns, rush hour traffic has the same effect.

To aid Washington's escape, some 400 members of the Maryland Brigade attacked the Stone House on Aug. 22, 1776. Three hundred of them died in the unsuccessful attack, but they had been able to buy enough time for Washington and his army to escape west into New Jersey and eventually to cross the Delaware River into Pennsylvania.

The loss of 300 troops as a percentage of the population of the United States in 1776 represented a significant force. The same percentage of the population today would amount to 28,000 casualties. The loss of those Marylanders and their bravery is still remembered in the restoration of that Old Stone House in a Brooklyn Park. The house is located in a regentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood known as Park Slope. It's a few short blocks from a subway station at 4th Avenue and 9th Street ‹ a ride of 30 minutes from Midtown Manhattan.

The Battle of Long Island was fought throughout the region, though its final skirmish at the Old Stone House was probably the most historic fighting of that whole period. The farm area that is now Prospect Park is only a few blocks from the Stone House and was the scene of bitter fighting. Today's park was designed by pioneer landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead. Olm-stead also designed Manhattan's Central Park and Chicago's Lincoln Park among many others. Running through the park is another name that is virtually synonymous with Brooklyn, the intersecting Flatbush Avenue which actually refers to some of the park's flora. Today, as children play in a petting zoo and lovers stroll through the park, it's very difficult to envision Redcoats reloading their muskets and firing at the Continentals who were rebelling against the British Crown.

But the Stone House's history doesn't end with the Battle of Brooklyn. After years of relative calm and its reversion to original bucolic uses, the house was sold, in 1852, to a railroad developer. It then became the meeting place for a group interested in playing the newly developing game of baseball. Early baseball teams didn't presume to have the professionalism (or the fantastic salaries) of today's athletes. They were, basically, a group of men whose common interest in the game brought them together. Thus, they formed a club and looked for a place for club meetings. The Old Stone House ultimately became the club house of the Brooklyn National League Baseball team who were known first as "The Brooklyn Superbas," and then as "The Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers" and finally as the Brooklyn Dodgers, a name that still resonates in the ears of sports enthusiasts.

The building is now operated by a group called the "First Battle Revival Alliance" and by the city of New York Park Commission. It's an interpretive center and a tourist destination for the informed and curious. There are occasional re-enactments of the Battle of Brooklyn and, while it's expected that Washington will again escape with his troops to fight for the independence of the newly formed country, none of the re-enactors will be digging clams in the Gowanus Channel.

And while ghostly umpires might still be shouting "Play ball," there's little hope that the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers will return from Los Angeles to settle their bets in the Old Stone House.

Back to top of page | Journal Home