Little Odessa, History

 

History

I have lived in Brighton Beach my whole life, but a quick Google search told me much more than I knew about my own neighborhood. In 1645, the area spanning from what we know as Sheepshead Bay (which is not part of Brighton Beach, but I wanted to tell you that it's named that way because of the fish that was abundant in its waters called a sheepshead!) to Sea Gate was sold by the Native Americans that currently lived here for a "a gun, a blanket, and a kettle." It was mostly farms throughout the 1700's in majority owned by by English settlers and their descendants. In the late 1860's a big resort was built along the water and a Subway line was built to allow tourists access to the hotel. Alongside the hotel, a racehorse arena was built flocking more people to the area. 

In the early twentieth century it became greatly populated with Jewish-Americans and Holocaust survivors, prompting the neighborhood to adapt to its changing community. The famous ballet theater was converted to a Yiddish theater for the growing Jewish community. 

Beginning in the 1970s, Brighton Beach became a popular area for Soviet Union immigrants, mostly from Ukraine and Russia. The massive amount of Ukrainian immigrants that came here earned the area its name Little Odessa, for the city in Ukraine, Odessa (my family is from there!), along the Black Sea, similarly to how Brighton Beach is along the Atlantic Ocean. Many were attracted to this area for that exact reason, they were used to living near the beach and a four season climate. After the Soviet Union fell in the 1990's, even more Russian-speaking immigrants came to this area, knowing they would find a community of others similar to themselves here. 

Today it is still primarily made up of Soviet Union refugees, like my parents, and emigrants who came here to escape religious persecution. Many of the shops, restaurants and food markets offer Eastern European and Uzbek (a growing community in Brighton Beach over the last few years) food and goods, with signs and menus offered in both English and Russian.