The original location of Corlaer's Hook was around the present east end of Corlaer’s Hook Parks pedestrian bridge now crossing the FDR Highway east of Cherry Street. East River shoreline landfill obscures the old land mass that once had the shape of a hook. In the 19th century, Lower Manhattan had more than 200 brothels. The Corlaer's Hook area was notorious for its prostitution trade and its bawdy houses for the lower class. “Hooker” was a name given to the streetwalkers working the Corlaer's Hook neighborhood. (The name stuck!) Even though prostitution was illegal under vagrancy statutes, the law was not well enforced by NYC police. The madam and brothel owner would pay off the local cops and other city officials to keep their dens of inequity safe and continuously profitable. One byproduct of the police’s inactivity combined with the brothels’ activity was that 75% of the city’s men had some “social disease.”
Long before that, on February 25th, 1643, Willem Kieft, the fifth Dutch governor of New Netherland, had his militia murder about 40 Lenape Indians living in Corlaer's Hook. The native village on the heavy marshlands (perfect for landing their canoes) was called Nechtanc or Naig-ia-nac (sand lands or sandy point), and the trail to it ran on the hilly line of Grand Street, connecting up to their village of Sappokanican (Greenwich Village).
Kieft's militia also killed more than 100 Wappinger Indians living in Jersey City (then called Pavonia), which the Indians called Hobokan-Hacking, this New Jersey Indian village was named Lapinikan. Kieft's soldiers played kickball with the heads of some of the slaughtered Indians back at Fort Amsterdam. These bloody acts united about 20 tribes of Indians who attacked the Dutch settlements for years.
In 1644, Kieft hired the famous Indian fighter and English-Connecticut mercenary, John Underhill, for 25 thousand guilders. Underhill and his men killed more than 1,200 Indians; 120 at Massapequa, Long Island, 700 in Stamford, Connecticut, and hundreds more throughout Long Island. The united Native American Indian tribes struck back, and by August 1645, only around 100 white settlers were left in NYC. Kieft's response was, "In this country, I am my own master and may do as I please". Kieft was fired on July 28th, 1646, and replaced on May 11th, 1647, by Pieter Stuyvesant.
A 17th century farmer named Jacob Van Corlaer became the first white man to own Corlaer's Hook. The graded coastal inclines of this hilly area were often used by early Dutch vessels. When the English conquered the Dutch, Corlaer's Hook became Crown Point, named after an English fort on its hills. During the Revolutionary War, the wretched remains of 12-15 battalions (shattered by sickness, fatigue and desertion) sailed from Lake Champlain in leaky boats without awnings and landed at Crown Point. These 5,200 men, under the leadership of General Benedict Arnold, were all that remained of the American army; 2,800 of these troops were sick and dying, and on July 10th the sick were moved to Fort George.
Corlaer's Hook Market, originally called the Grand Street Market, had a fire bell on its cupola. It was located on Grand Street at Goerck Street from 1806 to 1819. In 1814, Irish immigrants leveled the hills to make landfill for the coastline that would help in dock building.
After the Delancey estate was forfeited because of Delancey’s loyalty to the British, Charles Brownne had his shipyards at Corlaer's Hook, which was also where Robert Fulton's Clermont, the world’s first successful steamboat, was built in 1807. Fulton the First, a steam frigate designed by Robert Fulton and also built by Charles Brownne (in 1814), was launched at Corlaer’s Hook. Another Corlaer's Hook shipyard was the Allaire Works, which was located there for 40 years. The Fickett and Crockett shipyards were situated in Corlaer's Hook in the early 1800s. In 1818, a 98-foot packet ship called the Savannah was built there by Francis Fickett for $50 thousand. The Savannah was launched from Corlaer's Hook on August 22nd, 1818. After a trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, the Savannah sank on November 5th, 1821, off Bellport, Long Island by Great South Beach. The steam cylinder of her engine was exhibited at the Crystal Palace Fair, held in 1832 at Bryant Park, NYC.
In 1893, NYC bought 4.4 acres off the East River and turned it into Corlaer’s Hook Park, which became one of the first municipal parks when it was completed in 1905. In 1941, the Cherry Street area of Corlaer’s Hook was used for NYC's first superdevelopment, the Vladeck Houses. Vladeck's 24 six-story buildings started the public housing trend. In 1998, a $50 million renovation of the Vladeck Houses was started.
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