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The one-block long Fillmore Place was not part of the original Williamsburgh street grid. It was created by Alfred Clock and Ephraim Miller, local merchants, real estate developers and prominent citizens of the Village of Williamsburgh. The two appear to have been active in Williamsburgh real estate as early as 1838, and by the 1850s were prominent citizens of the City of Williamsburgh.

Fillmore Place was not part of the original Williamsburgh street grid. It was the creation of Alfred Clock and Ephraim Miller, local merchants, real estate developers and prominent citizens of the Village of Williamsburgh. The two appear to have been active in Williamsburgh real estate as early as 1838, and by the 1850s were prominent citizens of the City of Williamsburgh.

Fillmore Place is a rare example of a nearly intact collection of mid-19th century flat houses. The block-long street that forms the core of the proposed district was carved out of the Williamsburgh street grid in 1852, and developed by Alfred Clock & Ephraim Miller over the course of the following four years.

Arion Hall, once home to the Arion Singing Society, is one of many remnants of Bushwick's once-thriving German population. The building sits on Arion Street (formerly Wall Street), between Broadway and Bushwick Avenue/Beaver Street. While the building today is no match for its past glory, its recent renovation as the Opera Lofts is a vast improvement over the sorry state it was in only a few years ago.

Once upon a time, Williamsburg and Greenpoint were divided by a rather large creek and surrounding marshland - as seen below in an 1833 map of the Village of Williamsburgh. The creek was originally called Norman Kill, after one Dirck de Noorman, or Dirk the Norseman – the first European settler in this part of Brooklyn. Later renamed Bushwick Creek, this waterway was at one point navigable by boat as far inland as Grand and Rodney.