From that intersection to its terminus in East New York it was named Division Avenue,[2] which was laid on the municipal boundaries separating the city of Brooklyn from the town of Bushwick (and village of Williamsburg, which was then part of the town).

At each of the roadbed changes in Williamsburg, Broadway bends a little more to the south until it runs straight southeast to East New York.

[4] With these connections, the central commercial area of Williamsburg began to migrate to Broadway from Grand Street.

Thirty-five blocks of Broadway from Williamsburg to Bedford-Stuyvesant were destroyed, 134 stores looted, 45 of them set ablaze.

The riots accelerated white flight from the area, as many of the destroyed properties were never rebuilt and remained empty lots well into the 1980s.