“Neighborhood in northwestern Brooklyn (1990 pop. 28,991), covering sixty acres (twenty-four hectares) and bounded to the north by Church Avenue, to the east by the tracks of the “D” and “Q” subway lines, to the south by Beverley Road, and to the west by Coney Island Avenue. Once owned by the Dutch Reformed church of Flatbush, the area was developed in 1899 by Dean Alvord after the extension of rail service from Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn. He planned the neighborhood to resemble a spacious suburb, engaged John Aitkin to provide landscaping, and established stringent architectural standards. The houses are set back thirty feet (nine meters) from the sidewalk; many were built at the turn of the century in a variety of styles, including Georgian, Prairie, Queen Anne, Elizabethan, neo-Tudor, Pediment, Japanese, Colonial Revival, French Revival, and Mission. A strip of land eight feet (2.4 meters) wide lies between the street and the sidewalk for planting. The streets are lined with trees, and Buckingham and Albemarle roads have central planning malls. The neighborhood is upper middle class and the main commercial thoroughfares are Church and Coney Island avenues.
Excerpted from: Jackson, Kenneth T. The Encyclopedia of New York City. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1995.
Mark's Text Terminal 