A Slope Toward the Sky: How Sunset Park Got Its Name

Brownstoner takes on Brooklyn history in Nabe Names, a series of briefs on the origins and surprising stories of neighborhood nomenclature.

The outsourcing of American industry in the mid 20th century took a heavy toll on Sunset Park, once a highly productive manufacturing sector. The area experienced a visible deterioration of its sprawling terminal buildings and warehouses for many decades.

Today, the area’s long-unused industrial spaces are seeing a renaissance among local maker businesses and corporate giants alike. Amazon, Time Inc., the winter Brooklyn Flea and Smorgasburg, and Blue Marble are now residents at Industry City.

As well, the sprawling structures are being transformed into venues for high-energy raves and dance parties — a far cry from the tortured souls who populated the area in Hubert Selby Jr.’s 1964 novel Last Exit to Brooklyn.

The neighborhood’s name reference is obvious to anyone who’s found themselves in the area in the evening: The street grid allows for one to see straight down Sunset Park’s sloped streets to the west, the water and the sunset.

The park itself — nearly 25 acres and still open to the public today — was called Sunset Park since its founding in 1890. But it wasn’t until the 1960s that the name caught on for the surrounding neighborhood — it had long been referred to only as South Brooklyn or lumped in with Bay Ridge or Gowanus.

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Industry City’s Rise, Fall and Rebirth, From Wartime Manufacturing to Artisanal Mecca

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