Established as a Dutch farming village in 1652, Vlacke Bos, meaning “flat woodland” in Dutch, was later Anglicized to Flatbush. Around the time that it became part of the city of Brooklyn in 1894, Flatbush began its transformation into a residential suburb. Real estate development in Flatbush was spurred in large part by the arrival in 1878 of the Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railroad (now the Brighton Beach line) and the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883. These infrastructure advances made it possible for residents to commute to downtown Brooklyn and Manhattan for work. Flatbush was subdivided into several neighborhoods with distinct names at the turn of the 20th century. These residential enclaves were developed between the 1890s and 1920, with house prices ranging from roughly $3,000 to $13,000. The most elite was Prospect Park South, which was established by developer Dean Alvord. Alvord envisioned a “garden within the city,” eschewing the rowhouse trend that was popular throughout Brooklyn. To ensure this aesthetic was achieved, the infrastructure and landscaping were laid out prior to the sale of the lots. Alvord required that fences and plantings not extend beyond the house lines in order to create a unified sweep of front yards. The streets were given British names, such as Buckingham and Westminster, to further evoke the country ideal that had its roots in the English country house and that was experiencing a surge in popularity throughout America. Instead of street signs, Alvord installed masonry gateposts engraved with the street names. Today, Victorian Flatbush is comprised of 11 neighborhoods that were all developed with the suburban country aesthetic as inspiration, which is still evident in the layout of the streetscapes with their yards, freestanding homes, and in some places planted street medians. While the houses were all constructed around the same time, their ornamental details were carefully selected to distinguish each from the other. Today this group of neighborhoods makes up one of the largest collections of Victorian-era wood-frame residential architecture in the country, though only roughly half are legally protected by the city as historic landmarks. The area’s five historic districts are Albemarle-Kenmore Terraces, Prospect Park South, Ditmas Park, Midwood Park and Fiske Terrace. Due to the neighborhoods’ common attributes and shared sense of place, local residents and advocates are keen to “complete the quilt” of historic district designation and include Caton Park, Beverley Square West, Beverley Square East, Ditmas Park West, West Midwood and South Midwood. Hidden within this tapestry of grand turn-of-the-century homes are glimpses of Flatbush’s more distant past. At the northern end is the Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church, which has its roots in the earliest settlement of the area, and at the southern end stands a farmhouse dating to before the Civil War, when Flatbush was still farmland. These reminders of 18th- and 19th-century Flatbush lend the neighborhood a rich and multi-dimensional context to an otherwise largely monochrome landscape.

Gilmore's Restaurant and Bar, July 8, 1962. East Flatbush was once home to a considerable Irish population. This two-story brick building, constructed between 1890 and 1905 (according to contemporaneous maps) has a number of uncommon features in comparison to even its similarly aged neighbors on both of its cross streets. The middle window on the Church Avenue facade has an arched, shell-decorated lintel, while the Rogers Avenue facade has an oculus, or small oval window. Like much of Brooklyn the demographics of the neighborhood have changed since this photograph was taken in 1962. Now a Caribbean neighborhood, the former Irish bar is now a well-known and loved Trinidad Roti Shop.

FDNY Engine 248 station house, June 11, 1961. Engine 248 would move to a new firehouse on Snyder Avenue in 1972.

The Matthew Clarkson Mansion, later home to the Midwood Club and the Union League Club, Flatbush; ca. 1880. Built in 1836 for Matthew Clarkson, a member of the prominent Flatbush family, this temple-fronted classical mansion once sat on a large tree-lined plot west of Flatbush Avenue. Following Clarkson's death in 1883, at the age of 87, the mansion became the first home of the Midwood Club, a gentlemen's social organization founded in 1889. The Club would eventually buy out Clarkson's heirs and assume ownership of the building. By 1917, the Midwood Club's membership had declined considerably and the club itself was on the brink of extinction. That year, the Union League Club, formerly located at Grant Square, took over the former Clarkson mansion and restored its place in Brooklyn social life. In 1937, the building became the Y.M.C.A.'s Flatbush chapter. After a January 1940 fire caused significant damage, the once-proud 104 year old estate was sold for development and razed.

Rubble from the demolition of No. 816 Flatbush Avenue, at Caton Avenue; July 17, 1929.

Erasmus Hall High School 899 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn 1904 Founded in 1786 as a private academy, Erasmus Hall High School became the first secondary school chartered by the State of New York and earned the nickname “mother of high schools.” With the rapid growth of Brooklyn’s population at the turn of the 20th Century, the need for a larger school was met by C.B.J Snyder’s design to build a series of Collegiate Gothic style buildings surrounding the original Federal style building to form a quadrangle. These new buildings were built in phases as needed so that classes could continue uninterrupted in the older building. Both the Federal and Gothic buildings were landmarked by the City in 1966, and the original Academy building was also listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Since 2010, the Landmarks Conservancy, in cooperation with the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President, has been an active advocate for the preservation and revitalization of the original Academy building. Notable alumni include Mae West, Barbara Stanwyck, Neil Diamond, Bobby Fischer, and Barbra Streisand.

Music school at Flatbush Avenue and Parkside Avenue (formerly Ocean Parkway, Franklin Avenue); ca. 1908. According to Gertrude Lefferts Vanderbilt's 1909 "Social History of Flabush," this house was built by Mrs. Jane Rhodes (sometimes spelled 'Rhoades'). In Eugene L. Armbruster's photo, ca. 1908, the late Mrs. Rhodes' home has been converted to the "School of Accompanying," described in a 1911 Brooklyn Daily Eagle advertisement as a resource for pianists to "largerly increase" their income.

Shops at Nos. 805-811 Flatbush Avenue, opposite Caton Avenue; May 11, 1929. These wood-frame structures were demolished in 1930, as Caton Avenue was extended east from Flatbush Avenue, along the path of the alley at right. Prior to the extension, the alley led to stables and further storefronts.

C.B.J. Snyder was an architect and mechanical engineer who served as Superintendent of School Buildings for the New York City Board of Education between 1891 and 1923. During his tenure he was responsible for the design and construction of more than 350 elementary, middle, and high schools in the five boroughs. Snyder is know for innovating the design and construction process. The resulting schools have been praised for their high quality, longevity, and architectural beauty. Snyder worked in a number of styles, favoring Beaux Arts, English Collegiate Gothic, and Renaissance Revival. Another feature of his buildings were their mid-block location, preferring to keep these places of education away from the busy, noisy, and (perceived) pollution of the avenues. He believed that schools were civic monuments that were necessary for a better society and he focused on health and safety issues, improving the fire protection, ventilation, lighting, and classroom size.

Flatbush Trust Company, undated postcard. Organized in 1899, the Flatbush Trust Company was the first bank in the neighborhood. While the largely agrarian nature of Flatbush in the 19th century hadn't required banking, the influx of people and business (particularly real estate development) to the area created a new need. The bank building seen here opened in 1903 and overall the Trust Company was a major success. They opened a second branch at Flatbush and Church Avenues in 1905 and by 1908 held $3.2 million in assets by 1908. The building here was expanded and drastically renovated in the 1920s when it became a branch of the American Exchange Irving Trust Co. Today it no longer stands, and its date of demolition is unknown.

Erasmus Hall High School, entrance, 1928. Across the Street from the Reformed Church of Flatbush's churchyard, between Flatbush, Bedford, Church, and Snyder Avenues, was Flatbush's prime educational institution, Erasmus Hall Academy, built in 1787. The school was the direct successor of the first public school in New Netherland dating from 1658, as explained on a plaque next to the entrance. The Livingstons and Vanderbilts led the effort to establish it as the first chartered secondary school in the state, with cross-cultural support from prominent citizens like Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, who himself had married into the prominent Dutch Schuyler family. With a rigorous classical curriculum, the academy not only provided a strong foundation for the professional advancement of Flatbush's sons, but also attracted pupils from across the region and the Anglo-Dutch indies. The original academy structure survives- a hidden and neglected historic gem embedded within the courtyard of the giant Erasmus Hall High School, a Collegiate Gothic-style structure begun in 1905. This public school replaced the academy and produced such famous alumni as Neil Diamond, Bernard Malamud, Beverly Sills, and Barbra Streisand.

Erasmus Hall Academy was founded in 1786 and was the first secondary school chartered by the New York State Regents. The land on which the clapboard structure was constructed was donated to the school by the nearby Flatbush Reformed Dutch Church. Originally a private boys school, it opened in 1787 with only 26 pupils. The school began admitting female students in 1801. In 1896 after decades of falling enrollment due to competition from the City of Brooklyn public schools, the trustees of Erasmus voted to donate the building to the public school system. After this donation and the consolidation of NYC two years later, enrollment boomed and a larger space was needed. In 1904, C. B. J. Snyder, the New York City Superintendent of School Buildings, presented plans to build a large Gothic style building. Called Erasmus Hall High School, it was built in four phases between 1905 and 1940. The original wood-frame building remains in the center of the newer building, and can be seen through the gates under the main tower on Flatbush Avenue.

Linden Theatre, Flatbush Avenue; June, 1928. Located at the eastern terminus of Caton Avenue, the Linden Theatre opened in 1911 had a twenty year run on Flatbush Avenue. The theatre was demolished in 1931 and replaced by a bank branch that survived until 2020 when it was cleared for a new residential building.

Storefronts on the east side of Rogers Avenue, Flatbush; July 8, 1962

151 Linden Boulevard, at the northwest corner of Rogers Avenue, 1932.

Greenhouse of William Brown, father-in-law of photographer Adrian Vanderveer Martense, in the aftermath of the blizzard of 1888. Brown was a player in the Brooklyn brewing business. In 1884 he led a group of investors in the purchase of the Bedford Brewery in present-day Crown Heights, and proceeded to upgrade its equipment and practices. Following a research and development trip to Europe, Brown returned to Kings County with the perfect recipe for lager beer, and the perfect name for his new brew: Budweiser. Unfortunately, the Anheuser-Busch corporation had already trademarked the name, following their own delegation's trip to the brewing city of Budweis in Bohemia. (Brown backed down, and the business was renamed Nassau Brewery.) An avid horticulturist, Brown commissioned the Lord & Burnham architectural firm to design a pair of heated greenhouses straddling the planned right of way for Robinson Road (now Parkside Avenue), east of Flatbush Avenue.

Streetcar on Flatbush Avenue, at Caton Avenue; ca. 1910. Photographer Eugene L. Armbruster's view is facing southward, from a point near Lenox Road. The spire of the Flatbush Reformed Dutch Church is visible in the distance.

RKO Kenmore, June 11, 1961. Built as a vaudeville house for the B.F. Keith Circuit in 1928, the theatre was originally called the Keith-Albee Kenmore. The auditorium had 3,025 seats under a 60-foot-wide dome. The balcony design included murals painted by children's book illustrator, Willy Pogany, who also created interior art for Manhattan's Beacon Theatre. The building's Italian-born architect Eugene DeRosa created more than 30 theatres around the city. The exterior was designed in a subtle Colonial Revival style. The theatre continued to present vaudeville until the early 1930s. In 1932 it became a single screen movie theater. It remained a movie theatre until 1999, and was split into a four-plex in the late 1980s after being sold to the Cineplex Odeon chain. A gang-related shooting occurred in 1999 during a showing of the movie 'The Life,' which left one person dead and two others injured. The NYPD closed the theatre. A few years later the building was sold and gutted for a Modell's Sporting Goods Store.

Adrian Vanderveer Martese house and front gate, after the Blizzard of 1888; March 14, 1888. Martense, the photographer of this collection, was a descendant of well-heeled Flatbush families and a prominent member of the village community. As clearly marked by the "A.V. MARTENSE, AMATEUR," photography was a leisure pursuit for Martense. A graduate of Rutgers and Columbia Law, Martense maintained a Montague Street practice throughout his professional life, while dedicating time to social pursuits, including the Knickerbocker Field Club, of which he was a founder; the Midwood and Crescent Clubs; and the Reformed Dutch Church, where he served as a deacon. Martense's photographs, which cover, roughly, the years 1872-1889, depict scenes of daily life in Flatbush, and document the residences of his contemporaries and neighbors on Diamond Street (now Lenox Road). Martense died on January 3 1898, succumbing to Bright's disease (the historical name for a variety of kidney diseases) at the young age of 45. The funeral was held at the family's Flatbush Avenue home (at the corner of, fittingly, Martense Street), where he had relocated in later years. He is today interred at Green-Wood Cemetery.