History
Jamaica Avenue was part of a pre-columbian trail for tribes from as far away as the Ohio River and the Great Lakes, coming to trade skins and furs for wampum. It was in 1655 that the first settlers paid the Native Americans with two guns, a coat, and some powder and lead, for the land lying between the old trail and "Beaver Pond," later, Baisley Pond. Dutch Director-General Peter Stuyvesant dubbed the area "Rustdorp" in granting the 1656 land patent. The English, who took control of the colony 1664, renamed the little settlement "Jameco," for the Jameco (or Yamecah) Native Americans.
In the early 19th century the old road through Jamaica Pass was the Brooklyn Ferry Road, and at mid-century became the Brooklyn and Jamaica Plank Road with toll booths. Late in the century the portion west of Jamaica Pass became Fulton Street, and the eastern portion Jamaica Avenue.
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—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
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“The history of reform is always identical; it is the comparison of the idea with the fact. Our modes of living are not agreeable to our imagination. We suspect they are unworthy. We arraign our daily employments.”
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