Dumbo, the Historic District With the Modern Name
November 28th, 2006
In the weekend’s Brooklyn Papers article, this question is posed: what do you name a historic district whose name is a modern concoction? “City officials are moving ahead with plans to create a historic district in DUMBO – whose acronymic name was created by developer David Walentas when he started buying up buildings in the 1980s to evoke an earlier uber-hip neighborhood, Soho.” People (or developers?) in NYC have a knack for naming and renaming neighborhoods by acronym or syllabic abbreviations: first SoHo, then Tribeca, NoHo, Nolita, BoCoCa, Dumbo, and even SoBro, SoHell and SoFi.
According to the NYC Dept of City Planning, only SoHo, NoHo, and Tribeca are recognized. However, the Official NYC website has a website dedicated to Dumbo. The MTA maps in the subway stations recognize SoHo, Tribeca, NoHo, and Dumbo. The article provides some past Dumbo area names:
The first name was Rapailie, after the family who owned most of the land. But in the centuries to follow, the area would be called “Olympia,” “Fulton Landing” and finally “Gairville,” after the early-20th century industrialist Robert Gair, who manufactured paper bags and corrugated cardboard boxes at 45 Washington St.
Until the 1980s and early 1990s, the western portion of neighborhood was known as Fulton Landing, became known as DUMBO. Despite the quirky name, it would cause more confusion to call the area Rapailie, Olympia, Gairville, or Walentasville, as some have suggested. Should the Historic Districts Council continue to use the name Dumbo as a historic district?
{Finding history in DUMBO – Landmark district in ‘new’ nabe still nameless, Brookly Papers, 11/25/06}
{Curbed.com neighborhood names}
{NextStop NYC, NYC.gov}
{Historic Districts Council, Dumbo neighborhood}
Update:
{How Dumbo Got Its Name and What It Was Almost Called, 21May2007}
{LPC Approves Dumbo Historic District, 18Dec2007}
November 28th, 2006 at 9:14 am
Just pass the damn law before Gutman demolishes every last historic building he can get his greedy hands on.
I’ve never once heard anyone call it anything but DUMBO and strangers I meet immediately recognize the name.
Unlike those other forced acronyms, everyone likes and accept it including the people who have lived here a long time. There is nothing wrong with using a developer-coined name if it happens to be a good one. Stick with DUMBO.
June 21st, 2007 at 5:53 pm
[...] in 2003. Change has been a constant in Dumbo. Of course the neighborhood name itself implies change, an area that has been referred to as Rapailie, Olympia, Fulton Landing, Gairville, and now Dumbo. [...]
June 21st, 2007 at 6:01 pm
[...] the character of the neighborhood. Some things never change. After DumboNYC wrote an article titled Dumbo, the Historic District With the Modern Name, a long time resident sent an email and introduced me to Crane [...]
February 10th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
I just found this – doing a search while reading a novel that is historically set and refers to “Olympia”. I couldn’t find anything in my copy of the Encyclopidia of New York. I was happy to learn it is in fact DUMBO, but surprised to learn it was originally “Rapailie”! I am actually a descendant of Joris Jansen Rapailie.
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:52 pm
I just found this – doing a search while reading a novel that is historically set and refers to “Olympia”. I couldn't find anything in my copy of the Encyclopidia of New York. I was happy to learn it is in fact DUMBO, but surprised to learn it was originally “Rapailie”! I am actually a descendant of Joris Jansen Rapailie.
April 5th, 2010 at 8:47 am
[...] saw a rise of factories, warehouses, and dock storehouses. Although the area has been known in the past as Rapailie, Olympia, Gairville, or Walentasville, it is now known as Dumbo (which stands for Down [...]
November 30th, 2010 at 11:29 am
[...] is known as Dumbo now was previously known as Rapailie, Olympia, or Gairville. Today, the business district is known for its media and digital [...]
July 10th, 2012 at 9:06 pm
[...] the early twentieth century the neighborhood currently called DUMBO was known as Gairville, after Robert Gair, a manufacturer of paper bags and the inventor of the paperboard folding carton. Gair’s [...]
February 11th, 2013 at 4:15 pm
[...] community east of the original ferry landing at the foot of what is now Fulton Landing (ref: see prior post Dumbo, the Historic District With the Modern Name and page 8, from the Dumbo Historic District LPC designation [...]