Minetta Creek

Minetta Creek (sometimes called Minetta Brook, Minetta Stream, Minetta Water, Minetta Waters, or by its Dutch name, Bestevaer's Killetje, before the American Revolutionary War), was a stream that was among the largest natural watercourses in Manhattan, New York City. Nearly two miles long, it began from two tributaries, the main one having its source near what is now Fifth Avenue and Twenty-first Street, and a secondary one that had its source at Sixth Avenue and Sixteenth Street. The streams flowed southward and joined between Eleventh and Twelfth Streets between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. From there it flowed southward across what is today Washington Square Park, it then crossed southwest, traversing what is today its namesake street – Minetta Street – and then Downing Street, eventually discharging into the Hudson River near what is currently Charlton Street. The creek was filled in by the mid-nineteenth century, although it persisted as an underground stream through the twentieth century. Debate continues on whether the creek still exists.

A plaque affixed to the building at Two Fifth Avenue provides one derivation of the name and reads as follows:

A brook winds its erratic way beneath this site

The Indians called it Manette or Devil's Water To the Dutch settlers it was Bestevaer's Killetje or Grandfather's Little Creek For the past two centuries familiar to this neighborhood as Minetta Brook

Another theory is that the name is an anglicization of the Dutch root "min" or "minuut" (English: little) and suffix "-tje" to produce "Minnetje" or "The little one" to distinguish it from the Groot Kill, a large creek that was a mile away.

The creek, whose course formed a well-defined channel, was known for its abundance of fish, in particular trout.Pickerel, bass, and pike were among the species fished in it. "All manner of wild fowl" including ducks and geese could be found in the creek. In fact the filling-in had preceded real-estate speculators' infill, according to the British Headquarters Map of c 1782–83, when the British carried out extensive defenses of the city: "they dammed Minetta Water to create a lake in what is now the West Village"

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