Neighborhood in southeastern Brooklyn, lying on a peninsula near Marine Park and bounded to the north by Avenue U, to the east by Gerritsen Avenue, to the south by Plum Beach Channel, and to the west by Shell Bank Creek and Knapp Street; it is bisected from west to east by Gotham Avenue Canal. The neighborhood was named for Wolfert Gerrritsen, a Walloon, who in the early seventeenth century built a house and mill on Gerritsen Creek (now part of Marine Park); the mill was destroyed by fire about 1931.
Until the early twentieth century the area remained undeveloped except for a few squatters’ bungalows at the foot of Gerritsen Avenue. The firm of Realty Associates began building a middle-class summer resort there in 1920, and the southwest corner of Gerritsen’s Meadow was soon covered by one-story bungalows with peaked roofs and no backyards. The popularity of this first venture spurred further growth. Some bungalows were made suitable for year-round habitation, two-story houses with backyards were built, and within a decade there were fifteen hundred houses.
Gerritsen Avenue is the main thoroughfare and the population is mostly of Irish, German, and Italian descent. The area north of the canal, called "The New Section" by local residents, is lined with stores and brick houses. The area south of the canal, "The Old Section" retains the character of a small fishing village and is a popular station for party boats. The volunteer fire department, which began operation in 1921 when the population began to grow, has headquarted at 32 Seba Avenue and may be the only remaining organization of its kind in Brooklyn.GERRITSEN BEACH
