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Bensonhurst natives consider their neighborhood the true "Little Italy" of New York City. However, the area started as Dutch. This area was originally called New Ultrecht and farmed by a family called the Bensons. They are the namesakes used by the area's first big developer in the late 1880s, who shortened the name into Bensonhurst. ("Hurst" is a German word for forest.) The 1890s city fathers hoped that the Bath Beach-Coney Island railroad would make the community of "Bensonhurst by the Sea" a tourist attraction, but their efforts were unsuccessful. Finally, with the construction of the subway line in 1915, many people fled the Lower East Side of Manhattan to build homes in here. The early 1930s saw the construction of high-rise apartment buildings. In the last 20 years, Chinese families have been attracted to the area and are now the greatest source of incoming residents. Today, it is a community abundant with single-family detached and attached houses and multi-family dwellings. From its beginnings to the present, Bensonhurst has always been a haven for middle class families with strong roots. TV trivia: Bensonhurst was the setting for Welcome Back, Kotter and The Honeymooners.

In 1643, Anthony Jansen Van Salee, a son of a pirate, obtained a patent on a vast tract of farmland. Most of the land remained wild until, in 1652, another pioneer, Cornelius van Werckhoven, took it over. He settled there but died before he could build anything. His children's guardian, Jacques Cortelyou, took charge of the estate. He divided the area into lots for a town, and he named it, in honor of his late patron's hometown in the Netherlands, New Utrecht. New Utrecht remained a remote and rather independent farming village until the late 1800s, supplying fresh produce to the metropolis of Brooklyn. Today, New Utrecht is a neighborhood within the area of Bensonhurst. One of its oldest buildings, the New Utrecht Reformed Church dates to 1829.

Bath Beach is inhabited by immigrants from Africa, Italy, Ireland, China, India, Pakistan, and Europe, but none is as important as Moe of the Three Stooges. His name is really Moses Horwitz, and he married a cousin of illusionist/daredevil Harry Houdini, Helen Schonberger, in 1925. By 1927, he was down on his luck. Moses, whose friends called Moe, tried to a businessman but failed, so he returned to performing. (He had appeared in silent movies as early as 1909, working at Vitagraph Studios in Midwood, Queens.) Frizz-haired concert violinist and amateur boxer Lawrence Fineberg, who called himself Larry Fine, joined the act. In the early 1930s, Moe's brother Jerome (nicknamed Curley), was persuaded to cut off his wavy brown hair and mustache and join the act. Eventually, the three sign a contract in 1934 with Columbia Pictures, where the act would remain for nearly thirty years as, of course, the Three Stooges. I know this doesn’t tell you much about he neighborhood, but it’s a good story. Bath Beach is calm, secure, charming, and conservative as well as ethnically diverse. Bath Beach residents are well known for their loyalty and dedication their community.