WRITTEN BY JAMES RENNER, Community Historian Date: August 2003 For a great website that shares the history and current action of Washington Heights and Inwood washington-heights website Inwood street nomenclature dates back to the colonial period when many of the European customs were brought here. Some of the streets were named for settlers of northern Manhattan. Others for people who lived here over the years. Dyckman Street was named for the family that came to the area in the 1660s. Jan Dyckman came to own 400 acres.

The original name of Dyckman Street was Inwood Street, which ran from Broadway west to the Hudson River. Vermilyea Avenue was named for Isaac Vermilyea who arrived here in 1663. Nagle Avenue was named for Jan Nagle, who owned 74 acres in the community. Nagle went into a joint venture with Dyckman to buy land. During the 1890s the variations in the spelling of the street included Naegle and Nagel. Post Avenue was named for the family that arrived here about the same time as the other settlers. Hendrick Post married Jan Nagle’s daughter Rebecca. Isham Street was named for resident William B. Isham, who owned an estate on Broadway and 212th Street. Emerson Street, which became 207th Street, was named for Reverend Brown Emerson, who was affiliated with the Mount Washington Presbyterian Church.

Hawthorne Street was to become 204th Street. Seaman Avenue was opened to vehicular traffic in 1908. It was named for Henry B. Seaman, whose family owned property west of Broadway from 215th to 217th Streets. The only remains of the vast estate is the archway, which is now owned by the Gallo Garage. Streets, plazas and squares in Inwood were named for those who served in the military and came from the area. Henshaw and Staff streets were named for two soldiers who died in the First World War. These were named at the insistence of the Inwood Post of the American Legion. The Lt. William Tighe Triangle located on Dyckman Street and Broadway honors a community activist who served in both World War I and World War II and lived at 200 Dyckman Street. Prior to 1930 it was known as Inwood Plaza. At present the Riverside Inwood Neighborhood Garden graces the plaza. Cooper Street owes its name to author James Fennimore Cooper who wrote such books as The Last of the Mohicans.

Staff Street was named for a little-known resident of Inwood who was killed in action during World War I. It was named at the insistence of the Inwood Post of the American Legion. Cumming Street was named for a local property owner on May 11, 1925. Sherman Avenue and Sherman Creek were named for the family who moved here in 1807. Sherman Creek was an important landmark in the colonial days as it was the Manhattan landing for a ferry that went to the Bronx on the Harlem River. The Creek was originally called the Half Kill when the Dutch settled in the area. Over the years several boat clubs such as the Atlanta, Lone Star, Non-Pariel and Union have used the shores of Sherman Creek for dock space. Many of these clubs closed in the 1960s, and the area was left in ruins with old boats rotting. The area has been restored by the New York Restoration Project and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The site will be used for additional parkland and a new marina. Some of Inwood’s streets owe their nomenclature to historic personages.

Payson Avenue was named for Reverend George Shipman Payson (1845-1923) who was pastor of Mount Washington Presbyterian Church at 84 Vermilyea Avenue. Dongan Place was named for Colonel Thomas Dongan, the first Roman Catholic Governor of the Province of New York. Bogardus Place was named for the Bogardus family, who owned a large tract of land in Fort Tryon Park. In the 1840s the family became involved in the construction of many of the cast iron buildings in New York City. Thayer Street, originally known as Union place, was named in honor of General Sylvanus Thayer (1785-1872), the first commandant of West Point when it opened in 1802. Several other streets in Inwood of note are Sickles Street, named after Daniel E. Sickles, New York State Legislator and Major-General during the Civil War. The naming of Ellwood Street is of unknown origin. It was the site of a Hessian encampment during the American Revolution. When the street was cut open to be laid out in the 1890s, crude shelters and artifacts were unearthed. Henshaw Street was named for Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Longquire Henshaw, who lived in the area in the 1880s and were members of the Mount Washington Presbyterian Church. There are many more streets that have a colorful and historical past. Further reading on this subject can be found in The Street Book, An Encyclopedia of Manhattan’s Street Names and their Origins, by Henry Moscow. This book helps in identifying the street where you live with a short story on it.