CROWN HEIGHTS — On this week's 239th anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn, there are a lot of ways to remember the first major Revolutionary War conflict, from events at the Old Stone House in Park Slope to walking tours in Prospect Park.
But off the beaten path — literally — there’s a spot in Crown Heights that may be one of the neighborhood’s only remaining links to the earliest moments of the battle.
Clove Road, located just east of Nostrand Avenue between Montgomery Street and Empire Boulevard behind an Associated supermarket, is an abandoned back alley, complete with empty shopping carts, litter and cracked asphalt.
But way back in the day, the little one-block-long diagonal street connected to the long-gone Old Clove Road, also known as the Bedford-Flatbush Road. It was also known in colonial times as what was likely the Bedford Pass, which led through a heavily wooded ridge known today as the hill on which Eastern Parkway is situated.
On Aug. 26, 1776 — the day before the main battle — between 500 and 800 Americans were positioned on that ridge against oncoming British and Hessian troops, according to a historical report of Clove Road commissioned by the city in 2002.
Here’s how the report described the scene that day:
“By 9:00 am the British had reached the village of Bedford, behind the troops still guarding the Bedford Pass. At about the same time, Hessian troops under General De Heister advanced from the south toward the Flatbush and Bedford Passes. The troops at the Bedford Pass, with British advancing from both north and south, retreated toward the Flatbush Pass, and both American contingents ultimately withdrew to Brooklyn Heights.”
No one is sure exactly how many troops were there, how many were killed in the small skirmishes they endured during the retreat or where, precisely, the Bedford Pass was located, the report said.
Through the years, the sliver of road bearing one of the oldest street names in the borough, survived generations of development; its cobblestones, likely placed there in the 1830s, the report said, are still visible underneath asphalt.
“This, like so many other out-of-the way, unsung and uncelebrated pathways and artifacts, is a snapshot of the far past, a window that looks back toward the colonial era of Brooklyn, when snipers challenged red-coated Brits for domination of Long Island,” wrote the historical blog Forgotten New York in an excellent post retracing the history of the street using old street maps.
In recent years, some neighborhood residents have made off-and-on attempts to commemorate the history of the road. Local elected officials and the area’s community board supported the historical report made in 2002, which was followed up shortly thereafter with an inconclusive archeological dig.
Last year local architect Michael Cetera teamed up with sculptor Kenichi Hiratsuka to create a “story stone” that would reflect the history of the street.
But the city has yet to give a green light to allow the stone to be placed on the street, Cetera said — something that doesn’t come as a surprise to him after years of trying to get some sort of official recognition for the historical significance of Clove Road.
"There's really not the political will" to make that happen, he said. "It's not that the local elected officials aren't interested, it's just that they have more important things to deal with."
