From the (1939) WPA Guide to New York City:
Bushwick and Ridgewood, old-fashioned and respectable, are German-American communities spreading northeast of Broadway. Comfortable brownstones with neat stoops and polished brass give the district an atmosphere of calm quite unlike that of the usual strident Brooklyn neighborhood.
In 1661 Governor Peter Stuyvesant mapped out the area in the vicinity of what is now Conselyea Street and Bushwick Avenue and named it "Boswijck" (Town of the Woods). The name was later corrupted to Bushwick. After the Battle of Long Island Hessian mercenaries were billeted here; although friction developed between the townsfolk and the troops, some of the soldiers returned at the end of the war and established homes. In 1854 Bushwick became part of the city of Brooklyn
South Bushwick Reformed Church, Bushwick Avenue and Himrod Street, better known as the "White Church," was organized in 1851 by members of the old Bushwick Reformed Church which dates back to 1654. The white frame building in the Dutch Colonial style, with its solid but graceful spire and green shutters, was completed in 1853 and is a reminder of the older community.
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