It’s a hulking thing, rising a few feet above the ground — and descending a few more below it — on the property of the landmarked Onderdonk House in Ridgewood, where it will be…
By Dustin Brown
For a big boulder, Arbitration Rock has done a good job making itself scarce.
It’s a hulking thing, rising a few feet above the ground — and descending a few more below it — on the property of the landmarked Onderdonk House in Ridgewood, where it will be christened with a plaque in a dedication ceremony Sunday afternoon.
But the enormous hunk of stone, a monument that once delineated the boundary between Queens and Brooklyn, has disappeared and reappeared repeatedly over the course of its history, a dubious past that casts into doubt the authenticity of its reincarnated self.
Now the rock that settled a dispute centuries ago is sparking an entirely new one.
“As far as we know, it’s the real thing found in the real place,” said Stanley Cogan, the borough historian for Queens.
But not everyone is convinced.
“Arbitration Rock has disappeared and reappeared as often as the Loch Ness Monster or Big Foot. And it’s likely as real as they are,” said one borough history buff who wants to see better documentation of the find. “Those that make the claim of its authenticity have the responsibility to back their claim, not with a chorus from the choir, but from impartial professional historians and archeologists.”
Until a year and a half ago, the rock had not seen the light of day for the better part of a century, having long sat beneath the surface of Onderdonk Avenue, a dead-end commercial street that sees little traffic beyond the trucks driving to and from an adjacent Frito Lay warehouse.
If it were just some typical rock, perhaps it would have drifted out of people’s memories, out of sight, out of mind.
But Arbitration Rock is a key player in the history of Brooklyn and Queens and the line that ultimately formed between them. Back in the days when Queens was Newtown and Brooklyn was Bushwick, a century-old border dispute was resolved only when the boundary was set by the rock’s imposing figure on Jan. 7, 1769.
Since then, the rock has been buried and recovered repeatedly, a pattern of disappearance that was first documented in 1852 by historian James Riker, who wrote that the rock had been blasted away by dynamite. But in 1880, it was rediscovered by a surveyor who remembered the boulder from his youth.
Arbitration Rock eventually fell victim to the will of man — covered in soil when the grade of the land was raised around the turn of the century — and finally sealed beneath the surface of Onderdonk Avenue, which was paved above it in the late 1920s.
Uncovering the rock has been the crusade of William Asadorian, a librarian from the New York Public Library who originally began researching the rock in 1993. The rock was dug out a year and a half ago by the city Department of Environmental Protection, financed with $10,000 from the office of the Queens borough president.
Sentiment appears to be shifting in favor of the Queens historians who are heralding the rock as a major discovery, a chance for the borough to reclaim its history with a prominent landmark.
Brian Merlis, a historian from Brooklyn who had originally faulted the rediscovery claims, has mulled over the evidence and softened his criticisms.
“I’m not positive that it is. It probably is,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday. “I’ve done some more research on it. It sort of looks like it.”
And the historians who spearheaded the movement in the first place say their work is founded on solid research.
“I know there’s a lot of controversy over whether or not that’s really Arbitration Rock, but it’s right where the map said it would be,” said George Miller, the archivist and librarian at the Greater Ridgewood Historical Society who has carefully studied the boulder’s history. “We’re convinced it’s the correct rock.”
In August, the rock was pulled out of its hole in the street and laid in the ground on the Onderdonk House property, still along the line of the original Newtown-Bushwick boundary. The line was altered in 1925 to conform to the street system, leaving the rock on the Queens side. The bottom half of the rock is submerged in the earth, like the root of a tooth, while the top rises a few feet into the air.
But the boulder that once settled the old Newtown-Bushwick rivalry has stirred it up once more. Merlis believes Brooklyn historians should have been consulted before any action was taken.
“You don’t move things like that. It has a historical significance,” he said. “Brooklyn really should have been consulted and Queens just basically took it.”
But most see the change of venue as a chance to prevent a historical relic from yet again disappearing from view.
“Why bury it for another 50 years or so before some more people get curious?” said Vincent Seyfried, a historian who has written extensively about Queens. “This way, the thing is taken out, everybody can see it, everybody can appreciate it.”
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
