Exploring the mystery of a forgotten concrete railroad marker in Brooklyn

The marker is not easy to see. Gray, rough, and chipped, this rectangular block sits in the ground behind a chain-link fence just inside Sea Gate—the gated community at the end of Coney Island at West 37th Street.

Affixed to each side of the marker is what looks like a copper plaque that reads “Railroad Property: Use by Public Not Authorized.”

It’s a strange find at Sea Gate, a waterside community of 850 homes, per the New York Times. Sea Gate began in 1899 as a private summer retreat for members of the Vanderbilt family as well as the Dodges, Morgans, and other wealthy Gilded Age clans.

Today Sea Gate is still private—its quiet beaches, single-family homes, and historic lighthouse protected by security guards at two entrances.

Since there’s no railroad anywhere near Sea Gate, the concrete marker must have something to do with what occupied this site before the 1890s. In the mid- to late-19th century, this was a rowdy outpost with a pier, hotel, and casino known as Norton’s Point.

Norton’s Point was named for Michael Norton, a Tammany Hall politician who created a rough and tumble area where gangsters hung out and Boss Tweed tried to hide after he escaped from prison in 1875, according to Michael Immerso’s Coney Island: The People’s Playground.

Prior to Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach’s rise as popular seaside amusement resorts in the late 19th century, Norton’s Point was pretty much the only attraction on the entire Coney Island peninsula.

All that changed after the Civil War with the building of the railroads. That spurred the development of hotels, restaurants, bandshells, and beach pavilions. Hordes of middle-class and working-class New Yorkers soon followed, determined to take advantage of these new seaside amusements.

“In the 1880s the Prospect Park and Coney Island Railroad ran steam trains along this route to the ferry pier at Norton’s Point (Sea Gate),” states the Coney Island History Project. “The trains were later replaced by a trolley line that ran there until November 1948. The route was de-mapped during urban renewal and has disappeared without a trace except for several old railroad property markers.” (Trolley, above, 1940)

The rail tracks are long gone, but at least one concrete property marker remains, ignored and forgotten. Was it put up by the trolley line in the 20th century or one of the original rail lines in the late 1800s? That’s yet to be clarified.

[Third photo: New-York Historical Society]

Tags: Concrete Marker Sea Gate Brooklyn, Coney Island Development 19th Century, Nortons Point Coney Island, Railroad Marker Coney Island brooklyn, Railroad Marker Sea Gate Coney Island, Railroads to Coney Island 19th century