Wallabout Creek seems to actually be the name of two separate watercourses, both of which outletted into Wallabout Bay, in the Navy Yard in Brooklyn. They can both be seen in the 1766 map shown here-- below and just to the right and to the left of the words "Wallabout Bay." At least the western branch (on the left) was used to supply power to mills, and though it's hard at this scale you can just make out the words "Mill Dam" to the left of "Wallabout Bay." I don't know if the eastern branch was also dammed and used for power. Today, the western branch has disappeared as far as I know, but the eastern branch at least left its mark on the city: there is a Wallabout Street which follows the approximate course of the old stream, and underneath Wallabout Street is a 19th-century circular brick sewer, sixteen feet in diameter at its largest points.
Wallabout Bay and streams in 1766:
Interesting bit of history.
Posted by: ajlounyinjurylaw | March 10, 2011 at 10:25 PM