Marine Major Eugene McCarthy (1955-1991) of Brooklyn was among 278 Americans killed during the Gulf War.&nbsp; The memorial bears the symbol of the United States Marine Corps, and a smaller marker at the site reads as follows: A field of broken rock, the battlefield. a broken monument, a life cut short, duty honor and sacrifice

This photo by Eric Lander shows the Marine Major Eugene McCarthy memorial in Brooklyn.

Learn more about Marine Major Eugene McCarthy's historic site at the Historical Marker Database.

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The monument to Desert Storm veteran Major Eugene McCarthy (USMC) is marked with a broken stone in a bed of broken rocks. The artist designed the memorial to symbolize the experience of battle, love of country, and the lives broken by war. 

Marine Major Eugene McCarthy

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From Dutch colonial era farmhouses to early twentieth-century subdivisions, this driving tour takes you past historical houses in Midwood and Flatlands. Along the way there are historical monuments to war heroes plus a church and a synagogue. 

Midwood Park began as part of a larger subdivision called South Midwood, established on the former farm of John A. Lott. The Lott family sold the property to the Germania Real estate and Improvement Company in 1898 for under a half million dollars. The company, under Henry A. Meyer, had already completed the Vanderveer Park subdivision on Avenue D in Brooklyn, which sold out quickly. Around 1909, residents of the north half of what is now the Fiske Terrace-Midwood Park Historic District adopted the name Midwood Park; it was bounded by Foster Ave. on the north, Ocean Ave. on the east, mostly Glenwood Rd. on the south, and the Brighton line subway on the west.The new Midwood Park subdivision had rules for builders instituted by the Germania Company. Only single-family homes were allowed, and they needed to be two at least two stories and cost at least $5,000. Minimum house lot size was 50 by 100 feet; exterior house side walls needed to be no wider than 30 feet apart, although eaves and piazzas could be wider. Front fences were prohibited. Over three-fourths of the homes in the Midwood Park part of the Fiske Terrace-Midwood Park Historic District were built by the John R. Corbin Company, incorporated in 1902, including the house at 57 DeKoven Court. Corbin was a carpenter who studied architecture and became a contractor in Brooklyn in 1895. Benjamin Dreisler was the architect for this DeKoven Crt. house, in the western section of Midwood Park. Although not our house, Corbin sold another house he built on DeKoven Court (#34), on a 35 by 105 ft. lot, for $8,600 in 1908.Midwood Park's residents were in an uproar in fall 1912 when a new assessor dramatically raised the assessment values of their homes, causing their taxes to go up. One resident complained that less than six new houses had been built in Midwood Park in the prior five years, and their assessments went up two years prior; he argued that existing houses shouldn't have appreciated in value. He told of a neighbor who had been trying to sell his house for over a year due to a work move, at lower than the previous assessed value, with no takers. Directors of the Midwood Park Property Owners Association planned to meet to address the issue.In 1938, 57 DeKoven Court was owned by Louise B. Kiendl, the widow of Brooklyn attorney Theodore Kiend. Mr. and Mrs. Kiendl lived elsewhere in Brooklyn (Pennsylvania Ave.) in 1916 when their son, Theodore Jr., got married; they had purchased the Pennsylvania Ave. house in 1903. The Kiendls moved by 1919, to Arlington Ave. in Brooklyn, when daughter Louise wed; it is unknown how much later they acquired the DeKoven Court house. Louise Kiendl died in August 1946 at age 88; services were held at her summer home, Oldfield, in Setauket, Long Island.The 57 DeKoven Court house is wood frame covered with wood shingles, 2.5 stories tall with a basement, five bays wide, with a rough-faced concrete block foundation. The building is shaped like an L with projecting bays on the front facade. There's a full width, wraparound front porch and a later brick stoop with wrought iron railings. The second story has two bowed bays above the porch, and one bay with paired fenestration below the gambrel roof peak. A garage in the rear of the lot was added in 1920 and is made of rough-faced concrete block.

The house at 57 DeKoven Court was one of the first built in the new Midwood Park subdivision in 1903. "Midwood" comes from the Dutch "Midwout," their name for the Flatbush area of Brooklyn when it was part of a Dutch colony. The house's Dutch Colonial Revival architectural features are well-preserved, including a gambrel roof end turned to the front, a denticulated cornice, and a wide front veranda with square columns. The house is part of the New York City landmarked historic district of Fiske Terrace-Midwood Park, designated in 2008. It remains a single-family home with over 2,500 square feet.

House at 57 DeKoven Court

Charles Hercules Ebbetts, Sr. (1859-1925) became the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team in 1898. "Charlie" was born in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. He enjoyed baseball but was even better at bowling. He was orphaned at age 17 when his mother died. His early jobs included working as an architectural draftsman and selling novels door-to-door. In 1883 at age 23, he began working for the Brooklyn Dodgers Baseball Club as a clerk and ticket seller and worked his way up to manager, president, and owner. He spent a few years as a local alderman and one year as a state legislator in the 1890s. The new home field of the Dodgers, the former Ebbetts Field in Brooklyn, was built in 1912-1913 and raised in 1960.Charles Ebbets married twice; the first was in 1878 to Minnie F. Broadbent of New York City. The young couple married in Trinity Church in Manhattan; they had one son and three daughters. Around 1903, Charles met a married woman, Grace Nott, whose husband operated a hotel. The two began having an affair that led to both marriages ending. Grace and her husband Claude R. were divorced in 1909. Minnie Ebbets was no longer living with Charles by 1910; her address was 214 Parkside Avenue in Brooklyn. Charles and Grace were living at the Glenwood Rd. house by 1915. In 1919, Charles Sr. was listed in the Society "Blue Book" as residing at 1466 Glenwood Rd. (the former address of the 1666 Glenwood Rd. house); Minnie lived in Flatbush at 193 Ocean Ave. Ebbets' address was still 1466 Glenwood Rd. in a 1920 Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce Bulletin. Minnie sued for divorce in 1919 and the divorce was finalized in January 1922.In May 1922 Charles and Grace were married. Charles had a second house built in Clearwater, Florida in 1924, where the Dodgers' spring practice had moved in 1923. He returned to Florida for spring training early in 1925; when he returned to New York, he checked into a room at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. He fell ill and died at the hotel of heart failure on April 18th at age 65. Charles listed his address as 1466 Avenue G when he wrote his will in 1924; Avenue G became Glenwood Rd. in the subdivision but both names were used; the numbering system later changed 1466 to 1666. Charles left Grace all of the household goods, furnishings, and automobiles at 1466 Avenue G. He left his first wife a house on Ocean Avenue for her lifetime. Grace later moved to Mineola on Long Island. The estate took decades to be settled between the widow and Charles' three children (Charles Jr., Maie Ebbets Cadore, and Anna Ebbets Booth) due to provisions on his ownership of half of the Dodgers.Charles had a quirky sense of humor. He left $5,000 to the Brooklyn Club in his will to be invested; the proceeds were to go to an annual dinner in Ebbets' honor; the first dinner was held in 1929. A group called the Ebbets Last Man Club held a banquet annually on Ebbets' birthday, October 29th, in the Brooklyn Club on Remsen St. They set up empty chairs for Ebbets and anyone else of their group of 18 who had departed. The club members drank a toast to each of the departed members. The last man alive would be drinking 17 toasts!By 1953, the McCotter family lived at 1666 Glenwood Rd. including Gilbert E., a 1940 graduate of Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration. The house is rectangular in plan with a rear 1-story extension and a brick-enclosed full-width front porch. The 2,700+ square ft. home hasn't sold since 1992.

The house at 1666 Glenwood Road was built around 1907 in the new subdivision Fiske Terrace, in the Midwood section of Brooklyn. The house was the final home of Brooklyn Dodgers owner Charles Ebbets, who lived here from 1912 until his death in 1925. Ebbets Field, the new home of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1913, was named for him. The original owner and architect are not known. The wood frame house covered with brick, wood clapboard, and wood shingles is one of many within the Fiske Terrace-Midwood Park historic district, a New York City landmark since 2008. The house has had several modifications. The roof was extended to create a carport and the front porch was enclosed with brick walls around 1920. A brick garage was built in the rear of the lot around the same time.

Charles Ebbets House in Fiske Terrace

The Jewish population in Brooklyn grew rapidly between World Wars I and II. By 1923, Brooklyn's Jewish population (740,000) outnumbered Manhattan's (706,000). By the early 1940s, there were nearly 1 million Jews living in Brooklyn. Since Brooklyn was so fragmented with dozens of neighborhoods, each neighborhood tended to set up their own synagogue in combination with a community center. A dentist in Midwood, Dr. Jacob R. Schwartz, was concerned that there was no local Hebrew school near his home for his sons to attend. He was the guiding force behind establishing the East Midwood Jewish Center (EMJC). He and a few other local men he contacted met at the Jewish Communal Center of Flatbush on November 18th 1924. The Flatbush organization offered their facilities to the new group while it was being established. Like earlier synagogue-community centers in Manhattan and Brooklyn, the complex was planned to be on a major thoroughfare, Ocean Ave. Construction of the EMJC cost over 1 million dollars; another $11 million was spent on synagogue-community center building in New York City between 1924 and 1927. In 1929, twelve new centers were under construction in New York City.Louis Abramson drew up the plans for the EMJC, as well as the Brooklyn Jewish Center and the Jewish Communal Center of Flatbush. A fundraising competition gave some groups special privileges at the ceremony to lay the cornerstone for the EMJC. Louis Katz, the Finance Committee Chairman, won the right to lay the cornerstone for his gift of $2,600. The Chairman of the center's Talmud Torah Society, Robert Gabbe, donated $2,000 and spread the cement for the cornerstone. Another $2,000 was donated by Louis Greenfield, the center's Second Vice-President, who got to mix the mortar. The welcoming speaker and Counsel of the center, Albert D. Schanzer, stated that the center would be "a magnificent monument dedicated to life, to progress and to God."A 13-year-old student in the Sunday morning religious school at EMJC wrote two articles for the school's graduation bulletin in 1946. One was a tribute to Rabbi Stephen S. Wise as he turned 72; the student praised Rabbi Wide for his work fighting for women suffrage. The other was a reflection on the recent world war, urging people to never forget the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps, but reminding that "for righteous people hate and prejudice are neither good occupations nor fit companions." That wise eighth grader was the class valedictorian, Ruth Bader, the future Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. She was confirmed at EMJC by Rabbi Harry Halpern, who had performed the marriage ceremony for Ruth's parents.The stained-glass dome in the synagogue's roof was renovated recently by CTA Architects P.C. of Manhattan. The dome was fully disassembled, new stiffening bars were installed, and the glass sections were cleaned, restored and re-leaded. One tall stained-glass window was damaged beyond repair in a hurricane; a new frame was created in wood and the original stained glass was salvaged, restored, and re-leaded into the new frame and sash.

The East Midwood Jewish Center is a Conservative synagogue and community center on Ocean Avenue between Avenue K and Avenue L. The Renaissance Revival style building took three years to build and was finished in 1929 at a cost of $1 million. Future Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg was confirmed at East Midwood at age 13. The East Midwood Jewish Center was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006 for its architecture as an example of early twentieth century synagogue design, and for its significance in the history of the New York Jewish community. While it is not the only example of the combination synagogue/ community center from its era in Brooklyn, it is one of the least altered buildings and still serves its original purpose (many others have been converted into Jewish or non-Jewish schools).

East Midwood Jewish Center

The Dutch town of Flatlands was originally called New Amersfort and was settled in 1636. Some residents still spoke the Dutch language into the mid-nineteenth century. The Ditmas Coe House originally stood on the 85-acre farm of Joost Van Nuyse, on property his father (William Van Nuyse of New Utrecht) had purchased in 1725. Part of the farm's flat land was laid out as a racecourse for horse racing named Ascot Heath. It is likely that the house was built for Joost (sometimes called "George"), who was baptized in 1716 and married Elizabeth Emmans in 1744.The Joost Van Nuyse household was not found in the 1790 census. Joost and Elizabeth had many children: Margaret; Sarah; Wilhelmus; Joost (Jr.); Elizabeth; Johannes; Jacobus; Maria; and Helen or Magdalena. The need for a larger house to accommodate this family explains the addition of the larger wing around the end of the eighteenth century. Joost reportedly died in the house around 1792.Joost's son Johannes reportedly resided in his late father's homestead in Flatlands. Johannes was born in 1763 and married Nelly Lott (born in 1771); their children were: George (b. 1802); Jeromus (b. 1805); Eliza (b. 1807); Lemma (b. 1809); Maria (b. 1810); Eleanor (b. 1813); and Magdalen (b. 1816). A 1930 local newspaper article attributes the house to Johannes and says it took three days to build, around 1800; perhaps Johannes was the one who added the larger wing onto his father's house. Johannes died in 1826 and his widow passed away in 1832. Both George and Jeromus lived in Flatbush as adults. George reportedly built himself a home at 150 Amersfort Place in 1827 after marrying Margaret Ditmars, four years before his death at age 29; the George Van Nuyse House was on land acquired by the City of New York in 1935 to build Brooklyn College, It is reported that Van Nuyse heirs rented the Joost Van Nuyse house to Ditmas Coe in 1852. Since Jeromus died in 1852, perhaps Jeromus resided in and/ or owned his grandfather's house; Jeromus married Ann Eliza Brinkerhoff (b. 1813) in 1838 and had no children.Before leasing the Van Nuyse farm, Ditmas Coe was a farmer living in the Newtown area of Queens, according to the 1850 census. The 29-year-old farmer lived with his wife Sarah (age 25), children George (4) and Julia (1); several servants; and a farmer named Isaac Coe (20, probably a brother). Ditmas Coe owned real estate worth $12,000 in 1850. Ditmas Coe did not appear in the 1860 federal census, but he was a resident of the Town of Flatbush in 1870 (Flatlands was part of Flatbush by then). The 49-year-old retired farmer lived with his wife Sarah (41); son George (23); and daughter Henrietta (19). The Coes were all born in New York. Mr. Coe estimated his personal estate at a value of $25,000; no value was entered in the census for real estate, so he may have still been leasing the house. When the Amersfort Nurseries and Florists used the house for part of its business in the mid-1920s, their addresses were 1754 and 1772A Flatbush Ave; the house (at 1754 Flatbush, south of Avenue J) was still a dwelling on the 1907 Sanborn map, with a front porch on the older portion and a side porch on the newer wing. The nursery announced plans in June 1923 to move the house in the next few weeks from its location where it had "stood for at least 200 years" to E. 34th St. The nursery planned to continue its occupancy of the house after the move. The steeply-pitched roof of the added wing of the wood frame house has an overhanging eave with an out-sweeping curve on the front and rear, one of the hallmarks of Dutch colonial farmhouses; the entrance door is in the third (right) bay. The original portion of the wood-frame house has a side-gable roof with the out-sweeping curve on the front only; the front entrance door is under a shed-roofed porch, with the door in the third (right) bay.

A late eighteenth-century Dutch colonial farmhouse now stands at 1128 E. 34th St. in the Flatlands neighborhood, behind a white picket fence. The house is known as the "Ditmas Coe House" or the "Joost Van Nuyse House." Van Nuyse was born in 1716 and died in 1792; he is thought to be the builder of the house. Coe rented the house from a Van Nuyse heir in 1852. The original part of the Ditmas Coe House is wood frame, 1.5 stories tall, and nearly square, with a covered front porch. A later wing is much larger than the original house. The Ditmas Coe House became a New York City landmark in 1969 and was listed in the National Register in 2006. The Amersfort Nursery. a local landscape company, bought the Ditmas Coe House around 1923 when it was standing at the intersection of Flatbush Ave. and Avenue J, and used the house for part of its business. The Nursery moved the structure one block away to its current location on E. 34th St. off of Flatbush Ave. around July 1925. The house is a private dwelling once again.

Ditmas Coe House

The Dutch Reformed Church was established by the Dutch settlers in three places on the same day (February 9th 1654): in Flatbush, Bushwick, and Flatlands. The first pastor was Reverend Polhemus who arrived as a refugee from Brazil, where a Dutch trading post had been captured by the Portuguese. Polhemus and later his family lived in a building built in Flatbush as both a church and a parsonage. The first Dutch Reformed church building in the Flatlands area - the "Octagon Church" - was built in 1663, with an entrance to the south; two ministers covered a group of about five local churches by that time. The Octagon Church building was expanded in 1672 to hold 122 seats. Flatlands became its own town in 1778. The early town officials were elders in the church and also were responsible for overseeing the town school. A model of the Octagon Church was made from some of its shingles when it was replaced.A new Dutch Reformed Church was constructed in Flatlands in 1794 with Reverend Lowas pastor; this building stood in the same place as the original church and was unheated until the 1820s. The church grounds were used for local militia drills during the War of 1812. The Dutch Reformed Churches in Flatlands and New Lots shared a pastor beginning in 1824 and each got their own pastor in 1852. The first parsonage in Flatlands was built in 1838 near the intersection of Kings Highway and Avenue K. Around 800 people lived in Flatlands by 1840, eight years before the current church building was finished. The architect of the new church was Henry Eldert. A Sunday School building was added in the southwest portion of the property in 1854.The Reverend Ansou Du Bois became pastor of the Flatlands Dutch Reformed Church in 1871. The church building was expanded in 1873 along the sides to allow more seating for its 165 members. The church was supported partly by pew rents. The 250th anniversary of the establishment of the church was celebrated in 1904 by Flatlands pastor John S. Gardner, who had been in the position for twenty years. A new Sunday School building with an auditorium was built in 1904; the stucco over wood frame structure was expanded with side wings in the 1920s. In 1906, the old parsonage was demolished (Avenue K's expansion took its spot) and the present one was built, on E. 40th St. on the corner with Alton Pl. In 1914, a new pastor, Charles W. Roeder, came from New Jersey to Flatlands.The tall church steeple has been hit by lightning many times. The 450-pound bell dates to 1794, when this building's predecessor was built. The bell has been rung to mark every U.S. president's death since George Washington in 1799. The church was one of the earliest buildings in Brooklyn to be named a New York City landmark, in 1966. Much of the inside of the church was destroyed by a fire in 1974; while repairs were made, the congregation met in the auditorium. The active congregation currently numbers about 50.

The Flatlands Dutch Reformed Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and is a New York City landmark. The Greek Revival style church building was constructed in 1848 as the congregation's third church. The burial ground next to the church has over a thousand burials dating back to about 1660, including the grave of the "Rebel Parson," Reverend Ulpianus Van Sinderen. When the City of New York proposed in 1924 to transform the church and cemetery into a public park to be maintained by the city, the outcry from church members and nearby residents put a stop to the plan.

Flatlands Dutch Reformed Church

Flatlands was purchased by the Dutch (Andries Hudsen and Wolpert G. van Couwenhoven) from Native Americans in 1636; its Indian name was Keskachogue or Keskateuw. The Dutch renamed the place Nieu Amersfoort. A town charter was granted in 1654. The British took over the colony in 1664 and soon renamed the settlement Flatlands. The first Stoothoff to settle in Flatlands was probably Elbert Elbertse Stoothoff van de Vrede, who emigrated in 1633 from Nieuwkerken and eventually moved to Flatlands; he served as a magistrate for many years. Elbert married in 1645 and again in 1683, five years before his death.One of Elbert's sons was named Gerrit Elbertse Stoothoff; Gerrit was the father of eleven children by the time of his death in 1730. One son was named Wilhelmus (b. 1705 - d. 1783); he is thought to be the builder of our Stoothoff - Baxter - Kouwenhaven House ("SBK House") in Flatlands circa [ca.] 1747 (the center of the house now). Wilhelmus married Altje Albertse in 1728 and had seven children over two decades. The eldest son was named Garret; Wilhelmus sold to his son Garret 95 acres in Flatlands south of Mill Road in 1772, next to two other Stoothoff farms. This Garret (b. 1730) married Maria (Mary) Voorhees in 1762 and died in 1780. Garret Stoothoff's daughters Altie (the wife of John Baxter) and Deborah (the wife of Abraham Wyckoff) inherited their father's property. In 1796, the Wyckoffs sold their interest to the Baxters. The John Baxter house was described in 1796 as measuring 18 by 28 feet with a value of $400. The 91-acre farm also had a barn; the farm's value was estimated at $2,400. John Baxter was an immigrant from Ireland who worked as a schoolmaster in Flatlands. His journal has been preserved. He documented moving the farmhouse in 1811 and building the larger wing, to the right of the original house. The next family raised in the house was John Baxter's son, Garret Stoothoff Baxter (b. 1792 - d. ca. 1836), who married twice: to Abigail Wyckoff and to Sarah, his widow. Garret S. and his first wife, Abigail, had a daughter named Abigail. Her stepmother, Sarah, deeded the house to Abigail in 1838. Abigail married William I. Kouwenhoven (b. 1818 - d. 1904) in 1843. Their ninth child, Kitty Kouwenhoven was born in 1861 in the SBK House; Kitty married John Marshall Remsen and owned the house until 1925 or later, when it was sold out of the family.The wing to the left of the original house has a side shed roof and is open to the backyard; this "kitchen wing" was added in 1880. Around 1900, the house was moved slightly to correspond with the street grid; the house stood within the future location of E. 48th St., as seen on a map from 1890. A 1907 map shows the house in its present location, with a lot extending from E. 48th St. to Schenectady Ave (see the image below). The rear yard contained six wood frame outbuildings - a wash house, two sheds, windmill, wagon house, and stable - and a windmill. The stable stuck out into the road a bit beyond the lot line.The SBK House was owned by the Cucchiara family in 1994 when it was purchased by a retired teacher, Ken Friedlander. Check out the link to the 2014 online article for photos of the house and its contents, and the story of its ghost (said to be John Baxter - maybe he's looking for his journal).

The tiny house behind a white picket fence at 1640 E. 48th St. in Flatlands began as a Dutch colonial farmhouse, built around 1747, probably by Wilhelmus Stoothoff. The newer, larger wing was added in 1811. The "Kouwenhoven House" also is known as the "Stoothoff - Baxter - Kouwenhoven House" (SBK House for short, here). The house has been moved twice! Originally, the smaller house stood, facing south, north of Mill Lane on land of Wilhelmus Stoothoff. The son of Wilhelmus, Garret, inherited the house. Garret's daughter, Altje, married John Baxter; Baxter moved the house to the south of Mill Lane and added the larger wing. John's granddaughter Abigail inherited the house in 1836 and later married William I. Kouwenhoven. The house was moved slightly around 1900 to make way for E. 34th St. to be built. A Kouwenhaven daughter and her husband still lived in the house in 1925. The SBK House became a New York City landmark in 1976 and was listed in the New York and National Registers of Historic Places in 1982.

Kouwenhoven House

Built around the year 1766, the Wyckoff-Bennett Homestead is an&nbsp;18th-century example of Dutch colonial architecture. The house is rectangular in shape and one and a half stories tall. It sits on a half-acre lot that consists of the house, a white picket fence, and a barn. Even after years of wear and tear, the house remains in pristine&nbsp;condition. In the 1890s, due to the addition of roads in the area, the house was turned to face west instead of south so that part of it didn't have to be demolished for the roads to be built.&nbsp; Over the course of its life, the house has changed families twice with a total of three different families living in the house. The Wyckoff family, who built the home, lived in it until 1835. That year, Cornelius W. Bennett purchased the home, along with the nearly 100 acres that surrounded it. The Bennett family used the property for farming for much of the 19th century. The house remained in the Bennett family until 1983, when the Mont family, Annette and Stuart, bought the home for $160,000. Though the Mont family intended to sell the property to New York City when they passed away, the deal fell through, so the Mont's plan to pass the home onto their children instead.&nbsp; During the American Revolution, the homestead was occupied by Hessian forces stationed in the area. They used the property as quarters for their officers, who were hired by the British to help them combat the colonists. The name of two Hessian officers, Toepfer Capt. of Regt. de Ditfurth and M. Bach Lieutenant Hessen Hanau Artillerie, are carved into the windowpanes. Because of the home's lengthy life and rich history, it was designated a New York City landmark in 1968 and given a place on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.&nbsp;

The Wyckoff-Bennett Homestead was built around the year 1766 in what is today Brooklyn, New York. The property consists of a Dutch farmhouse and barn. The rectangular farmhouse is a story and a half tall, and it is one of the only remaining Dutch farmhouses left in New York City, leaving with us an example of what Dutch colonial farmhouse architecture was like. The house was named a landmark site by the city of New York in 1968, and it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. 

Wyckoff-Bennett Homestead

The background of Sgt. Joyce Kilmer. Born in New Jersey in 1886, Albert Joyce Kilmer spent his 31 years as a devoted family man, writer, and fearless solider. After college, Kilmer started out as an editor of a dictionary and then became a freelance writer. Four years before entered the war, Kilmer wrote his most famous poem "Trees1."It became a massive hit and was beloved by many, especially children.2 In "Trees" Kilmer shows both his love for nature and reverence to god. The first two lines of poem are:I think that I shall never see/A poem lovely as a tree.  The poem ends with:Poems are made by fools like me/But only God can make a tree.3Kilmer's faith in God became extremely important to him after his young daughter became sick with polio in 1912. He especially found comfort in Catholicism’s preachings and soon converted to the religion.4 In 1917, he joined the 165th Infantry also known as the "Fighting Irish" after being convinced by its chaplain, Father Francis Duffy. Duffy was one of the many Irish immigrants in the unit, most of them either first or second generation.5 These Irish men entered the war due to their love for America, even though it meant fighting alongside the British who they vehemently opposed. Having a wife and children dependent on him,6 Kilmer could have been exempted from the first rounds of drafts mandated by the Selective Service Act of 1917.7 However, Kilmer offered to go because he viewed fighting in the war as strongly patriotic. During the war, Kilmer didn't hesitate to put himself in harm’s way to help his fellow soldiers. Originally starting out in a position that kept him away from the fight, he moved onto a position in the Regimental Intelligence staff that was tasked with gathering information in "No Man's Land," a narrow space between opposing side's trenches.8 On July 30th, 2018, during a battle on the Ourcq river line, Kilmer was killed dead by a sniper's bullet. On the day he was killed, he was serving as an adjunct to the Major of the First Battalion, replacing the Major's adjunct, who had been killed just the day before.9 One of the people who discovered Kilmer's body was Father Duffy.10  The dedication of the squareThe City of New York acquired the land rights to the square in 1920, however it wasn’t until 1935 that it was dedicated to Kilmer.11 It is interesting that the city waited so long to name the dedication, close to two decades after Kilmer’s death and the end of World War I.It is possible, that the city wanted to refresh peoples’ memories about Americans who died in the war because tensions in the world were again heating up. In Germany, the Reichstag passed the Nuremberg Laws, which introduced anti-Semitism into German legislation. Italian troops invaded Ethiopia. Concurrently, the United States passed the Neutrality Act, which put a general embargo on trading arms and war materials with nations at war.12 In reminding New Yorkers of the cost of war, perhaps the city seizing on a national trend towards trying to avoid staying out of yet another deadly war in Europe.

The triangle commemorates Joyce Kilmer, one of the most famous Americans to die in combat during World War I. Before going off to war, Joyce Kilmer wrote the well-known poem “Trees,” which expresses his love for nature, and was widely read. The benches under the trees in the triangle are similar to the atmosphere that Kilmer sat in when writing many of his poems. In addition to his writing, Kilmer is remembered for his extreme bravery and unwavering commitment to the war. 

Midwood & Flatlands neighborhoods, Brooklyn Historical Driving Tour

Marine Major Eugene McCarthy

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information