Praalandia

Dutch courage?

If there is one thing hipster bars are good for, besides craft beer, it's keeping historical names alive. Take Dominie's Hoek in Long Island City. It takes its name from Dominie Bogardus, the "fiery" first minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in New Amsterdam, who purchased the land stretching along Newtown Creek.

In 1697, the property was purchased by Captain Peter Praa, a French Hugenot who had fled persecution first to the Netherlands and then to New Amsterdam.  But for a quirk of biology, it might be called Praa's Point today. But the captain had no male heirs, so the land passed to his daughter and her husband, William, Bennett. It was renamed Bennett's Point by their son Jacob. He left the land to his only child, Annettie, and her husband, Captain George Hunter.

But let's go back to Captain Praa. According to the invaluable Early Long Island: A Colonial Study by Martha Bockée Flint (Knickerbocker Press, 1896), Captain Praa "left to a favourite slave a bit of high ground encircled by a branch of the Mespat. It was long known as 'Jack's Island', and there the old negro reigned supreme as in his native Guinea."

"Honey, I can see the BQE from our apartment!"

Well, there's no trace of Jack's Island now. However, I do have a proposal. As construction goes ahead on the high-rise and high-price Hunters Point South residential complex (left), save a bit of green space to honor Jack. Only through Captain Praa's dying bequest do we have the name of just one of those other early inhabitants of New Amsterdam--and nobody's naming hipster bars after them.

(A good history of the neighborhood is provided in the Landmarks Commission Report on the HP District from 1968.)