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May 23, 2007

How Dumbo Got Its Name

dumbo_a67bd9ac52.jpg
Earlier this week, the blog DumboNYC ran a very interesting post about the origins of the neighborhood name Dumbo. As opposed to the being the concoction of real estate developers and politicians, the name came out of a drunken brainstorming session among several artists in the area in the late 1970s. One of those artists, Crane Davis, described how it all went down:

In 1978, as the inevitability of development became apparent, the community decided that, if we were to die, at least we should be buried under a name of our choosing. A naming committee consisting of Selby Beebe, Crane Davis, Monte Davis and John Donovan was appointed. After much sitting around and drinking beer, to a point where none of us could remember who had suggested what, we came up with two alternatives:

DUMBO: Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass
DANYA: District Around the Navy Yard Annex
The choice was presented to the community at a huge loft party and the results weren’t even close. It was DUMBO by a landslide. Everyone agreed that it had just the right kind of Dadaist anti-marketing positioning to protect our turf from developers: who, after all, would spend a million dollars for a loft in a place called DUMBO?
Who, indeed.

Hah.
How Dumbo Got Its Name [Dumbo NYC]
Photo by Hoot Owl




Posted by Brownstoner at 10:23 AM | Comments (17)
Categories: Brooklyn, Dumbo, Historical

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Comments

Great, great, great!
...ahh, all the plans of mice and men.

Posted by: Dodger at May 23, 2007 10:34 AM

So who named "Hell's Kitchen", ehmm, I mean, "Clinton."

Posted by: anon at May 23, 2007 10:49 AM

Satan, of course.

Posted by: Shahn Andersen at May 23, 2007 10:56 AM

back in the day, i was lucky enough to have gone to a couple of parties in those wonderfully cavernous lofts that lined those scary (at the time) streets where one never ever knew what (or who) one would discover in a nearby dumpster.

anyway, those days are clearly gone now. i wonder where those artists have dispersed themselves to? i know where one or two are, but the rest ... what's up?

i don't know if anyone here knows of debbie masters and her really amazing and often beyond lifesize human sculptures. her loft was so massive she filled her space with them. i recall entire rooms full, almost as if they were people living there with her. amazing.

Posted by: anon. at May 23, 2007 11:01 AM

Back in the day they used to film bondage porn in DUMBO

Posted by: Annonymous at May 23, 2007 11:04 AM

We used to run a Snuff film empire out of a place on the ground floor on Jay Street in the late 70's-early 80's. I remember the name "DUMBO" being used way before we moved in, as far back as 73 when I graduated from NYU. I don't buy this story for a minute.

Posted by: Al at May 23, 2007 11:16 AM

i absolutely agree with 11:16. the story sounds far too obvious and pat to be true. my sense is that it's just a name that came about organically over time because of it's (uh ... well) location, as in:

lost truck driver to pedestrian: where is washington street

(relatively) knowledgeable pedestrian: uh well. (points) it's over there. hmmm. (thinks to self) how better to explain? oh. ok. you see the manhattan bridge, right? see the overpass as well? well, it's down under there.

after that was reiterated over and over again ... well, you get the drift.

Posted by: anon. at May 23, 2007 11:43 AM

Story sounds right/accurate to me. Basically what I vaguely remember from the time.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 23, 2007 12:12 PM

I was at the neighborhood naming loft party. It is accurate. However the name D.U.M.B.O. may have been loosely used in some capacity before 1978.

Posted by: loft artist at May 23, 2007 12:42 PM

It is a great name, it had to be artists that thought it up. But I think they may hve been too drunk to remember that the name Dumbo has, to most Americans, very sweet and homey associations with flying elephants. Very kid-friendly. They should have known.

Posted by: anonymous at May 23, 2007 1:00 PM

They knew development was coming -- in 1978? They had a 20-year-long mourning party? Give me a break.

Posted by: Jeremy at May 23, 2007 1:25 PM

um, isn't anybody gonna ask Al to elaborate on his admission of producing snuff films?

Posted by: Jimmy Legs at May 23, 2007 1:53 PM

I'm glad they didn't go with DANYA... just doesn't have that 'ring' to it!

Their anti-gentrification plan might have worked if they simply named it Down Under the Manhattan Bridge. Imagine saying..."yeah, I live in DUMB".

Posted by: Anonymous at May 23, 2007 2:51 PM

Sounds just like the story told on F TROOP when the tribe got it's name: "Where the heck are we?"

Posted by: tommurphy at May 23, 2007 3:25 PM

DUMBO is just too cute a name, if they wanted to discourage development they chould have called it pisstown, or vomit hill.

Posted by: anonymous at May 23, 2007 3:52 PM

whatever i'm calling it danya or whatever from now on, what a bunch of self important crap from artists that never became anything

Posted by: Anonymous at May 24, 2007 8:35 AM

This story is totally preposterous. Like Jeremy said, there is no way anyone knew Dumbo would become what it is today in 1978.

Most of Manhattan was undesirable, and to live on the Bowery was to REALLY slum worse than anywhere in the country. A townhouse in Park Slope was actually more expensive than Chelsea, and both neighborhoods were hardly expensive.

Yeah, I call bullshit

Posted by: Eryximachus at May 24, 2007 9:22 AM

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