Ditmas Park, Brooklyn

Ditmas Park Historic District
Ditmas Avenue and Rugby Road
Ditmas Park, Brooklyn is located in New York City
Ditmas Park, Brooklyn
Ditmas Park, Brooklyn is located in New York
Ditmas Park, Brooklyn
Ditmas Park, Brooklyn is located in the United States
Ditmas Park, Brooklyn
LocationBounded by Marlborough Rd., Dorchester Rd., Ocean Ave., and Newkirk Ave., New York, New York
Coordinates40°38′20″N 73°57′40″W / 40.63889°N 73.96111°W / 40.63889; -73.96111
Area35 acres (14 ha)
Built1902
Architectural styleColonial, Queen Anne, Bungalow
NRHP reference No.83001688 [1]
Added to NRHPSeptember 30, 1983

Ditmas Park is a historic district in the neighborhood of Flatbush in Brooklyn, New York City. The traditional boundaries of Ditmas Park, including Ditmas Park West, are Ocean Avenue and greater Flatbush to the east, Dorchester Road and the Prospect Park South neighborhood to the north, Coney Island Avenue and the Kensington neighborhood to the west, and Newkirk Avenue to the south.[2] The name Ditmas Park is often used as a shorthand for the several neighborhoods that comprise the larger area of Victorian Flatbush.[3]

Ditmas Park is patrolled by the New York City Police Department's 70th Precinct,[4] and is within Brooklyn Community District 14. The New York City Subway's B and ​Q trains serve Ditmas Park.

The neighborhood is located on land formerly owned by the Ditmas family. The area remained rural until the 1890s. At that time, Brooklyn was becoming more popular, due to the development of Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Bridge, along with improved transportation in New York City. Lewis H. Pounds was one of the early developers of the area now known as Ditmas Park Historic District. This eight-block national historic district consists of 2,000 to 2,500 largely residential buildings built between 1902 and 1914. Many of the buildings are large, free-standing, single-family homes with gables and front porches. Most of the building architects were local to the Flatbush or Brooklyn area, and they specialized in suburban buildings. Architectural styles of the area's buildings include Colonial Revival, Bungalow/Craftsman, Queen Anne, Tudor, Greek Revival, and Japanese Cottage. These styles are uncommon in Brooklyn, where brownstones and rowhouses are typical. The district also includes apartment buildings, a commercial district along Cortelyou Road, and one church, the brick Neo-Georgian Flatbush-Tompkins Congregational Church (1910) at which Conrad Tillard is since 2018 the Senior Minister.[5][6][7][8][3][9][10]

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. ^ Ditmas Park and Ditmas Park West Brooklyn Community Board 14, Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  3. ^ a b Inserra, Jonah (2018-03-06). "Ditmas Park Is Home to One of the Largest Collections of Victorian Homes in the Country". Untapped New York. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
  4. ^ 70th Precinct, New York City Police Department, Accessed September 26, 2017. "This precinct is home to Midwood, Fiske Terrace, Ditmas Park, and Prospect Park South."
  5. ^ Greene, Leonard (2022-10-28). "Rev. Calvin Butts, longtime leader of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church, dead at 73". The New York Daily News.
  6. ^ "Flatbush-Tompkins Congregational Church". CCCNY.
  7. ^ Larry Gobrecht (August 1983). "National Register of Historic Places Registration:Ditmas Park Historic District". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Archived from the original on 2012-10-19. Retrieved 2011-03-12. See also: "Accompanying 23 photos". Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2014-12-15.
  8. ^ "Block by Block: Ditmas Park (Published 2016)". The New York Times. 2016-01-12. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
  9. ^ Douglas Elliman (2018-07-10). "7 reasons to buy an apartment—or an entire Victorian house—in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn". Brick Underground. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
  10. ^ "Ditmas Park Historic District Designation Report" (PDF). City of New York.