Who Lives in Pigtown? We Do.

I've heard before that, back in the 1800's when Brooklyn still had a thriving agricultural economy, the Eastern end of our fair neighborhood - and Wingate - was known as Pigtown. Still, it is nice to be reminded, and this post from Ephemeral New York did the trick.

Ephemeral New York has an old news clip and reports that the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of that era was routinely filled with crime reports from Pigtown. They also report that "The New York Times archive contains some gruesome stories of gangster murders in Pigtown, which was populated by Italian immigrants." Which is definitely something I'll have to look into for a future post.

I have to admit, I wish the neighborhood was still called Pigtown. I'd love to be able to say that I lived in Pigtown in the same way that "Hell's Kitchen" and "Gravesend" are awesome neighborhood names.

But Barbara Corcoran simply wouldn't approve.

Image from the Brooklyn Public Library, who report that it was also called "Oaklands," and that there was a short-lived attempt to call the neighborhood "Crown Slope," proving that the Corcoran-like rebranders have always been among us.

Comments

[clarkson flatbed]

From what I've read, Pigtown had the same borders as the current "Wingate." Wingate/Pigtown both start at Nostrand heading East, south of Empire. Some websites lazily say it started at Prospect Park, but I'm pretty sure that's not true, since the current Lefferts Gardens was still farmland owned by Lefferts and the original Flatbush families.

Anyhow you slice it, Pigtown is a killer name, and Corcoran would be crazy not to capitalize on it. Who the F wants to live in a 'hood called Wingate? Sounds like a lame suburban housing development.

Me, I live in Peppatown.

[Sam]

I'm pro-pigtown. It beats lefferts garden any day.

[Bob Marvin]

Doesn't "Wingate"(i.e. East Flatbush) start at New York Avenue? If not, there's a problem because PLG extends east to that street.

[Charles Star]

That's what I thought too, Bob, which is why I said Pigtown contains a bit of both neighborhoods. I will say, though, that neighborhood borders are a bit malleable over time and Wingate is an older designation than PLG, so that strip in the NE corner of PLG may, technically, also be Wingate (see, for example, this) or at least a Wingate/PLG DMZ.

[Bob Marvin]

The Wikepidia article on Wingate has a link to another on PLG which states [quite correctly] that our neighborhood is "bounded by Empire Boulevard (formerly Malbone Street) to the north, Clarkson Avenue to the south, New York Avenue to the east, and Ocean Avenue/Prospect Park to the west". Obviously there's some ambiguity here. FWIW my wife, who went to Wingate High School and grew up in East Flatbush has always used that[EF]name for the area east of NY Ave.

[Charles Star]

There isn't any dispute over the PLG border. Until I see some record of the battle where marauding hordes from PLG "took" the disputed territory in battle, I'm going to assume that it is within both neighborhoods' historical borders.

[Bob Marvin]

Oh,"Pigtown" definitely overlaps both relatively recent neighborhood designations. I thought the question was whether PLG ends, and Wingate begins, at Nostrand or New York Avenue and IMO it's the latter.

[vinnie pantone]

as for me i grew up in PIG TOWN

[A, BIVONA]

Malbone St. was originally changed to Empire Blvd. because of a terrible train accident that happened there in the teens. They mdidn't want to be noted as the street where so many people lost their lives.

[Bob Marvin]

That would be the Nov. 1, 1918 Malbone Street Disaster:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malbone_Street_Wreck

[Mark]

I grew up in Pigtown (430 Hawthorne) and went to PS 91. My father grew up in Crown Heights on Crown Street. In the mid-1950s the neighborhood was largely Italian and Jewish (these categories are not mutually exclusive). Many of my neighbors were residents at Downstate Medical Center/Kings County Hospital. We liked the name of our neigborhood. I hate these real-estate names.