Gerritsen Beach

The scene of the first murder in Every Evil Deed, Gerritsen Creek is a freshwater creek that used to extend inland twice as far as it does today. Around 1920, the portion of the creek that lay north of Avenue U was converted into an underground storm drain. Though it is no longer visible, it still supplies the marsh with freshwater from further inland.

Between 800 and 1400 CE, Native Americans from the village of Keshawchqueren (where Flatbush Avenue and Kings Highway intersect today) probably used this creek for hunting and fishing. Their food preparation pits, deer and turtle bones, oyster shells, and sturgeon scales have been excavated throughout Marine Park. When the Dutch arrived in the early 17th century, the plains and salt marshes along the southern coast of Brooklyn seemed reminiscent of perennially flooded Holland. Thus, the Dutch stayed and established several villages including New Utrecht, New Amersfoort (Flatlands), Flatbush, New Lots, and Bushwick. These villages consisted of large dairy farms, spread throughout the region. These and later settlers found additional wealth harvesting oysters and clams from Jamaica Bay. But during the 1920s, suburbanization of Brooklyn forced land-intensive dairy farms elsewhere, and harbor development killed the bay’s oyster beds.

At low tide, near marker 4, visitors can see wooden pilings crossing the creek. These are the remains of the first tide-powered mill in North America. Dutch farmer Hugh Gerritsen (the son of the original settler Wolphert Gerritsen, for whom the surrounding neighborhood is named) built this flourmill in 1645. While George Washington’s Continental Army was stationed in Brooklyn, this mill ground flour for the troops. Later, the Hessians who fought for the British captured and used it too. The mill continued to operate until 1889, and was burned by vandals in 1935.

Gerritsen Creek provides a natural habitat for a very diverse group of organisms. Myrtle warblers, Canada geese, brants, canvasbacks, common loons, cotton-tailed rabbits, ring-necked pheasants, horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus), oyster toadfish, and different species of egret, heron and grebe all live in and around the creek.