Past and Present: The Three Mile House on Fulton Street in Bedford Stuyvesant

A look at Brooklyn, then and now.

There was a time when Fulton Street, between New York and Brooklyn Avenues, was the end of the line. Or the beginning of a new line, depending on how you wanted to look at it. This was the frontier, near the line of demarcation between the town of Bedford, and therefore the City of Brooklyn, and Out There.

Since it was the frontier, it’s appropriate that this story should have stage coaches. They figure greatly in our story – the story of Charles Holder’s Three Mile House.

Native Americans cut the trail that became Fulton Street. It was part of a major trading route that lasted for centuries. The Dutch and then the English expanded the trail into the Jamaica Road. It wound its way from Long Island, through Queens, and across the length of Brooklyn, joining the farms of Long Island to the harbors at Fulton Ferry and Wallabout Bay.

As time passed, the Jamaica Road was paved with wooden planks, changing the name to the Jamaica Plank Road, a toll road that saw a great deal of traffic. The Plank Road eventually became Fulton Street. Although its name changes once it reaches Queens, Fulton Street technically still stretches from the East River to Montauk.

Bedford Corners, 1776. New York Public Library.

In the days before odometers, travelers needed to know where they were, so mile markers were placed along the road, measuring the distance from Fulton Ferry.

These milestones (the literal definition of the word) became convenient places to put a tavern or an inn, as travelers were inclined to stop to rest there, just as we now take breaks at rest stops along the thruway.

Charles Barrett Holder was a smart man who saw a need and met it. He was an Englishman who’d come to the United States in 1832, settling in Detroit. That city was but a trading post at the time, and Holder made a good living trading furs and other items with the Indians.

Brooklyn Eagle, 1894.

Holder returned to England for family reasons, and came back to America several years later, this time to Brooklyn. He established a grocery near the corner of Fulton and Waverly in 1842.

At that time, he was situated well outside the confines of urban development in Brooklyn, as Fort Greene/Clinton Hill was just starting to develop.

Holder saw that there was no public transportation anywhere near him. His customers had to walk or hire a local wagon or coach. That made no sense.

With the help of an investor named Joseph Wrigglesworth, Holder established the first coach line along Bedford Avenue. It ran from Wallabout Bay to the town of Bedford, ending near the new Public School 3 on Bedford and Halsey.

Holder imported a fleet of 25 coaches from England, all painted bright yellow. Each was powered by two spirited horses. These were not the familiar American stage coaches of the Western frontier, but urban public transportation; the first yellow cabs!

1840s decorative coaches, via bera.org.

His stage coaches were an immediate hit, and his business grew, as did his route. The Jamaica Plank Road had been slightly reworked and was no longer a toll road; it was now called Fulton Street.

Holder and his new partner, John Young, established a stage line from Fulton Ferry up Fulton Street to East New York, where customers could connect with the railroad. In 1854, Holder sold his interest in the stage line, and decided to become a full-time innkeeper.

By that date he already had his Three Mile House on the block of Fulton Street between New York and Brooklyn Avenues. The large wood-frame Greek Revival/Italianate inn was completed by builder William McKee around 1852. It was painted bright yellow, just like his stage coaches. It soon became a familiar and welcoming place for travelers.

Three Mile House, Brooklyn Eagle, 1908.

The inn was exactly three miles from Fulton Ferry and three miles from East New York. His customers were businessmen, salesmen, and local farmers and townspeople. It was on the outskirts of the town of Bedford, which was still centered around Fulton Street and Bedford Avenue.

His inn was surrounded by open fields. Behind him, where Crown Heights now rises, were nothing but woods and meadows, known to be good hunting. That was all Lefferts land. From his porch looking north, Holder could see farmhouses dotting what is now Bedford Stuyvesant. The street grid had been established here, but development was still far in the future.

Travelers and locals alike always appreciate a good restaurant, and Holder’s Three Mile House could accommodate them. The inn became known for its fine fare, serving chops, steaks, and Welsh rarebit in an English pub atmosphere. It was also known for its fine ales and stout, in the days before German lager.

Brooklyn Eagle, 1894.

The inn had a large yard in the rear, stretching to what is now Herkimer Street. Holder planted trees and a garden, and placed benches and tables there for the ladies to enjoy. Lawn tennis, skittles and lawn bowling were available for guests.

In the winter, sledding and sleigh rides were arranged, as was ice skating. The sleigh, a huge affair, could be rented out by the public, and was a popular party option for Bedford’s young couples. The summer saw evening dances and other entertainments on the expansive lawn.

Charles Holder was esteemed as one of the great men of Bedford. He ran the inn for many years before retiring. He leased it out to a man named Sellers, and retired to his farm on Long Island. But after Sellers’ lease was up, Holder took it back. He missed the inn.

Holder died in 1889 at the age of 81. At the time of his death, the inn was still family run, now by one of his daughters and her family. The inn he had founded was now 37 years old.

Holder and his wife Ruth had eight children, five daughters and three sons. One of the sons, John Holder, was an early baseball player, playing with the Excelsior Club of Brooklyn.

John Holder, by Charles Miller for Find A Grave.

He is on record for hitting the first home run ever recorded in a box score. He was also a founding member of the Long Island Cricket Club, which played in the fields behind his father’s inn.

John died in 1874, at the age of 40. He and his parents, Ruth and Charles, are buried next to each other in Green-Wood Cemetery.

Charles, Ruth and John Holder in Green-Wood Cemetery, via Charles Miller for Find A Grave.

Even as Charles Holder was being eulogized in the papers, the death knell of the Three Mile Inn was being sounded. Brooklyn no longer ended at the establishment — it had enveloped the inn and moved well past it.

The fields and farms that Charles Holder saw from his porch were now filled with blocks of row houses and freestanding homes. Businesses had grown up around the inn, as Fulton became a major commercial street.

The wood-framed inn no longer looked welcoming, it looked rundown. By the early years of the 20th century, the inn had passed from the Holder family to outside owners. In 1908, the Eagle printed the only known photograph of the inn, announcing that it was going to be torn down.

1904 map, New York Public Library.

As can be seen in a 1904 map, the J.M. Horton Ice Cream factory was right next door, separated from the inn by a brick wall. An earlier map, from 1888, shows that site taken up by the road house for the Brooklyn City Railroad, with other commercial buildings on the other side.The inn, even in the best circumstances, didn’t have a prayer in the face of progress.

Today, the site is taken up by Restoration Plaza and the Billie Holiday Theater. That building was originally the Sheffield Bottling Plant, built in 1915. It was a stable and creamery for the Sheffield Milk Company, one of New York City’s “Big Three” milk companies. Milk was processed here from the late teens until the 1960s.

Sheffield was one of the largest milk plants in the city. When it closed, some of the last manufacturing jobs in a struggling Bedford Stuyvesant went with them. The plant was empty for several years until it became the focal point of the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation in 1967.

This bold revitalization was the product of the cooperation between Senators Robert M. Kennedy and Jacob Javits, the federal government, and local business and community leaders. The bottling plant was rehabbed into offices and a theater, the centerpiece of the new Restoration Plaza.

The iconic busts of cows and milk bottles are still visible high on the façade. Unfortunately, no trace remains of Charles Holder’s Three Mile Inn. We need to put up a plaque.

The former Sheffield Bottling Plant, now Restoration Plaza. Google Maps.