Bensonhurst is a vibrant and diverse community located in southern Brooklyn. The neighborhood is surrounded by Dyker Heights to the northwest, Borough Park and Mapleton to the northeast, Bath Beach to the southwest, and Gravesend to the southeast.
Originally consisting of farmland that was a part of New Utrecht, Bensonhurst derives its name from the sale of the Benson family’s farmland to a real estate developer in the mid-1880s. Marketed as a resort town Bensonhurst-by-the-Sea, including what is today Bath Beach, it soon developed into an Italian and Jewish enclave through the 20th century. Bensonhurst’s population began to increase in 1885 when the Brooklyn, Bath and West End Railroad (whose route is now part of the New York City subway system) was built. With the extension of the 4th Avenue line (now the N and R trains) in 1915 running through the area, many working class Jewish and Italian families migrated from the Lower East Side to find affordable housing in Bensonhurst. By the 1980s, approximately 80% of the population was Italian.
With such a large Italian American population, Bensonhurst became a primary “Little Italy” of Brooklyn. Yet the neighborhood continued to attract new waves of immigrants. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, an influx of immigrants from China and the former Soviet Union began to arrive, and they settled below the subway line along 86th Street between 18th and Stillwell avenues. With convenient transit connections to Chinese communities in Manhattan and Sunset Park via the N and D trains, Bensonhurst became an emerging Chinatown.
Today many Chinese restaurants, clothing stores, and supermarkets can be found along 86th Street, 18th Avenue, and Bay Parkway, with most Chinese residents living between 18th and 25th avenues. 18th Avenue (also known as Cristoforo Colombo Boulevard) between Shore Parkway and 60th Street is still lined with small multigenerational Italian businesses. Bath Avenue is becoming a hub for Southeast Asian, Latin American, and Eastern European businesses and services. Even with an increasing population and demographic shifts, the neighborhood has maintained much of its history and today is referred to as Brooklyn’s largest Chinatown and Little Italy. Served by the N and D trains, and seven bus routes, the neighborhood is accessible for residents aging in place and those looking to visit.
