Mill Basin and Bergen Beach - Two Rebuilt Brooklyn Neighborhoods

Bergen Beach was originally developed in the 1890s as a summer resort community. An amusement park, boardwalk and Vaudeville shows provided visitors with entertainment. For boating enthusiasts, the Bergen Beach Yacht Club opened around 1900, but was destroyed by fire in 1922. In1924, the club moved to its current location in Mill Basin.

Within Bergen Beach is the community of Georgetown located in the area of Ralph Avenue, Veterans Avenue, Avenue U, and Bergen Avenue. This area consists of two-, three-, and four-family attached and semi-attached houses. The exclusive community of Mill Basin has a unique history compared to other south Brooklyn waterfront communities—it doesn't include a period as a resort.

Mill Basin was primarily rural until Robert L. Crooke built Crooke Smelting in 1890. National Lead Company bought Crooke Smelting in 1900, and the rest of the land was sold to a firm that built bulkheads to fill the marshland. In 1906 the Flatbush Improvement Company was responsible for dredging the area's creeks and filling in open meadows in order to prepare 332 acres for industrial development. Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific bought land in 1909, and built three dry docks. By 1919, at least six manufacturing and commercial firms were operating out of Mill Basin. Local business leaders promoted Jamaica Bay as a harbor and new dock facilities were built after Flatbush Avenue was extended to the Rockaway Inlet. The area never attracted a large shipping business, however, but the docks were often rented to small industrial firms in the 1920s and 1930s. Until the 1920s, local residents living in shacks on the beach made their living selling crabs, oysters, and clams from Jamaica Bay.

Until the late 1940s, Mill Basin remained an industrial area and many of its workers lived in the semi-detached homes developed between the 1920s and 1940s. After World War II, Mill Island was connected by a landfill. Brick homes were built, and a two-story co-op was constructed in 1954. Today custom-made homes are replacing the original homes in the area. A Brooklyn architect who redesigned a Mill Basin home was honored by the AIA Brooklyn Chapter with an AIA 2005 Certificate of Appreciation. Mill Basin's multi-million dollar waterfront homes also feature more than 200 private docks.
The Kings Plaza Shopping Center and Marina is located in Mill Basin, the complex opened in 1970, features bookstores, Macy's, Sears, Home Depot, local and chain retail stores, movies, and boat slips. The El Caribe Country Club and Gil Hodges Lanes, a bowling alley are also a local source of entertainment.