Lullwater Bridge, ca. 1900.

(Frank S. Lowe, 1905-06) This block and many of its neighbors—those on Sterling Street, Lefferts Avenue and the north side of Lincoln Road between Bedford and Nostrand Avenues—are within the locally-designated historic district, but excluded from the National Register listing since historically they were not subject to the restrictive covenants that characterize Lefferts Manor to the south. This meant that developers were able to erect multiple-family dwellings including these 58 two-family rowhouses erected by the Kingston Realty Company. Architect Lowe designed these buildings to resemble their single-family counterparts, with only one entrance and stoop serving both apartments. The two-family model became especially popular in Brooklyn beginning in the 1890s as an affordable option for families, which could rent out the top floor while occupying the parlor and basement floors, and with developers, who were exempt from tenement house regulations (which only applied to dwellings with three or more families).

582-590 Flatbush Avenue, 1922. No. 582, at right, was a late 19th century two and a half-story wood-frame home. According to the photograph notes, the home was demolished in 1928 for the construction of the Patio Theatre. The theatre was the grandest of the Century Theaters circuit. Designed by the architect-designer team of R.Thomas Short and William Rau, the auditorium was ornately designed with gilding and chandeliers. The style was "Old World Spanish." The theatre opened in 1928 and had early competition from the nearby Flatbush Theatre, Kenmore Theatre and Albemarle Theatre. The opening of the King's Theatre in 1929 put the Patio at a serious disadvantage. Despite the movie house surge after World War II and a renovation in 1948, the Patio was sold and demolished by the early 1960s.

590 Flatbush Avenue, known as the Thatcher House; July, 1928. John Thatcher was born in northwest England and immigrated to New York in about 1863, at the age of 10. In 1875, he founded the eponymous construction firm that would go on to become John Thatcher & Son (with son Edwin H. Thatcher). Thatcher & Son won several high profile contracts in Brooklyn, including the Polhemus Memorial Clinic, Erasmus Hall High School, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (Edwin Thatcher's obituary headline read "Edwin Thatcher Dies; Built Academy of Music). The elder Thatcher became the Superintendent of the Bureau of Buildings for Brooklyn, but met his early demise in 1912, in the line of duty: he was inspecting new buildings on New Lots Avenue with a colleague (identified as an "Italian apprentice"), when the scaffolding collapsed and he plunged 40 feet to the pavement below. He died shortly thereafter, of a spinal fracture and brain hemorrhage. Edwin Thatcher served as Commissioner of Buildings from 1934-38, and continued to oversee the family firm's operations until shortly before his death in 1953. The high-rise currently occupying this site on the west side of Flatbush Avenue was completed in 1962.

Wood-frame house at 598 Flatbush Avenue, opposite Rutland Road; 1922. In 1908, this was the residence of Charlotte Vanderbilt, daughter of John. J Vanderbilt and Margaret Stryker Vanderbilt. According to photographer Eugene L. Armbruster, the house was razed between 1922 and 1936. Charlotte Vanderbilt died in 1924, at the age of 89; she is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery. In 1882, the Charlotte Vanderbilt, a steam ferry, sank on the Hudson River, south of Kingston and Rondout. This ferry was named after a different Charlotte Vanderbilt (likely a relative), the sister of ferry and rail magnate Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt.

(George L. Morse, 1893) This congregation traces its origins to 1856, when a Sunday school for African American children “was started in a small building in the woods” in what is now Prospect Park. Two years later, in 1858, it was formally incorporated as the Society for the Amelioration of the Colored Population in Flatbush. The school—which also hosted occasional prayer meetings, funerals and temperance events—was given in 1871 to the Dutch Reformed Church, which began regular church services. After moving several times, the church settled at its current location in 1893 on land donated by the Lefferts family. A decade later, in 1903, Grace Chapel was organized as the independent Grace Reformed Church. Its graceful building features Tiffany stainedglass windows, also donated by the Lefferts family. The Sunday school (1903-04) facing Bedford Avenue was also designed by Morse.

The Cleft Ridge Arch, ca. 1890.

The Old Flatbush Toll Gate, unknown date. Originally located along the old Flatbush Turnpike, this Old Flatbush Toll Gate dates to an era when travelers were obliged to pay a small fare when they passed from the Village of Flatbush into the City of Brooklyn. While the 19th century turnpike no longer exists, the route generally followed what is known as today’s Flatbush Avenue. It stood along the Turnpike until 1925, when the toll gate was relocated to Prospect Park’s Willink Entrance. Residents who sought to avoid the toll were known to reroute to Port Road, also called Shinpike Road, which was a narrow and stony street that led to Gowanus and Red Hook Lane (now Court Street).

The Lullwater Bridge, ca. 1931. The Lullwater Bridge, constructed in the late 1800s, is located diagonally across from the Prospect Park Boathouse. To this day, it remains the longest crossing in Prospect Park and one of the only two automobile roads that cross over a park stream. While the first version of the bridge was built in 1868 with oak, after severe wear and vandalization, the City Club won a Bard Award and restored it to its present condition. The newly restored Lullwater Bridge has since traded in its original rustic stone and wooden frames, for stone and cast iron supports.

Ebbets Field ca. 1929 The Brooklyn Dodgers won nine National League pennants at Ebbets Field during their tenure here (1913-57) but only one World Series (1955). On August 26, 1939, this park was the site of the first televised baseball game. It was also the site where, on April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson, the first African-American baseball player in the major leagues, made his debut as first baseman for the Dodgers. With all this history it was a dark day in Brooklyn when Walter O'Malley moved "dem bums" to California at the end of the 1957 season. The field was demolished in 1960. The famous scoreboard clock is now at McCormick Field in Asheville, North Carolina.

Brooklyn Central Office, Bureau of Fire Communications ARCHITECT: Frank J. Hemle DATE: 1913 STYLE: Italian Renaissance Eclectic This Italian Renaissance Eclectic public building, designed in the form of a garden pavilion has great charm and architectural dignity. Three graceful arches with slender columns and a low balustrade frame a deep porch or vestibule and create a fine central entrance. It is closely related to the surrounding Botanical Garden and adjacent to Prospect Park.

Camerdown Elm, ca. 1880. In the mid 19th century, a gardener for the Earl of Camperdown in Scotland grafted a mutant Scotch Elm onto a normal Wych Elm thus creating the Camperdown Elm. This tree has branches that grow outward and weep instead of growing tall like a normal elm tree. Because it cannot reproduce, every Camperdown Elm is a direct descendant of the original. Prospect Park’s Camperdown Elm was donated to the Brooklyn Parks Commission in 1872 by Brooklyn florist A.G. Burgess. Frederick Olmstead placed this specimen tree near the Lullwater Boathouse on a small hill to give it plenty of room for its drooping branches. By the mid-1960s, almost a century later, the Camperdown Elm was still standing but in bad shape. The tree was afflicted with slime flux, a bacterial infection, and many parts had been hollowed by rats, carpenter ants, and rot. Poet Marianne Moore, who lived nearby in Fort Greene, came to its rescue. She was a great lover of Prospect Park and its trees and, in 1965, she was among the founders of the Greensward Foundation which supported the City’s public parks. Her poem “The Camperdown Elm” was published in the New Yorker in 1967. To rally support for the failing tree, Moore requested that people donate money to save the tree rather than to send flowers to her funeral (she was 80 at the time but, in fact, lived to 85). The public responded tree-care experts were hired and treated the Camperdown Elm over the next decade. The campaign to save the Camperdown Elm sparked the renaissance of Prospect Park.

Cleft Ridge Arch, unknown date. Completed in 1871, Prospect Park's Cleft Ridge Arch is a small béton-Coignet bridge that is celebrated as the first concrete arch to be built in the United States. The slabs used to build the archway were amongst the first concrete products to be mass-produced. When a financial “panic” came upon the country in 1873, the builders of Prospect Park shifted to alternative construction materials. Sitting directly in front of the park’s Camperdown Elm, the Arch was fashioned from molded blocks of concrete that were comprised of sand, gravel and Portland cement. Today, the Arch is crossed by Wellhouse Drive, connecting paths to the Lullwater and Music Grove area.

This neighborhood was once part of the Town of Flatbush, one of the original six towns established by Dutch and British Colonists in what is now Kings County. Flatbush remained an independent municipality until it was annexed in 1894 by the City of Brooklyn, which then became part of Greater New York in 1898. Up until this point, much of Flatbush was used for agricultural purposes. One of the largest landowners was the Lefferts family, which settled in Brooklyn in 1661. Various branches of the family maintained expansive farmsteads throughout Kings County, as well as in Queens, Long Island and New Jersey. The estate comprising much of Prospect Lefferts Gardens eventually passed to John Lefferts. An early proponent of development, he helped found the Flatbush Plank Road Company in 1855 to improve access to the area. As was often the case in New York City, transportation was the primary catalyst for urban development in the neighborhood. Continuing his father’s efforts, John’s son James Lefferts invested in the Brooklyn, Flatbush & Coney Island Railway Company, established in 1878. Initially serving pleasure seekers traveling between the Flatbush Long Island Railroad terminal and the beach, this became a true commuter line in 1896 when it was extended northward to downtown Brooklyn and eventually crossed the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan in 1901. John Lefferts began to subdivide the estate in 1887 when he announced the sale of 516 lots east of Rogers Avenue. A promotional pamphlet proclaimed that, “the absurdity of devoting lands so desirable, central, and valuable to raising corn and potatoes has finally induced the owner to part with \[the] lots.” The local press pronounced it “the most brilliant auction sale ever made in Flatbush,” which likely encouraged James Lefferts to put an additional 600 lots—most of the remaining farmstead—up for sale in 1893. Perhaps because these lots surrounded Lefferts’ own homestead, he added restrictive covenants prohibiting standard “noxious” uses (primarily industrial) and further stipulating that all buildings would be single-family houses. The lots covered by these covenants consisted of the area between Flatbush Avenue and Rogers Avenue from Lincoln Road to Fenimore Street, and was and is referred to as Lefferts Manor. In 1919 the Lefferts Manor Association was established to enforce the restrictions and preserve the area’s single-family residential character. Though the covenants limited use to single-family houses, the Association and the press were quick to point out that this did not overly restrict the neighborhood’s architectural variety. As one article noted, “the rule has not brought about any monotonous style of architecture. Some of the residences are of imposing size, in stone, stucco or wood. Others are dignified brick buildings in a row.” Outside Lefferts Manor, development was somewhat less constrained. Many blocks were built up with two-family row houses—some closely resembling their single-family counterparts and others more clearly embracing their duplex character. Some contain six-story elevator apartment buildings designed in a variety of styles. Flatbush Avenue in particular has a wealth of small-scale commercial buildings with fine architectural details. By the 1960s the Association began to rely on zoning regulations to enforce the residential character of the neighborhood, and in the 1970s a portion of the neighborhood was designated as a New York City historic district to preserve its architectural character. The Prospect Lefferts Gardens Neighborhood Association was founded in the late 1960s to foster racial integration in the area and to promote the vitality of the greater neighborhood (both inside and outside Lefferts Manor), a goal shared by the many civic organizations that continue to advocate for the preservation of Prospect Lefferts Gardens.

Patio Theatre, 1929.

Ebbets Field, 1914.

Lefferts Homestead Although this is basically a Dutch Colonial farmhouse, we are amazed at the beauty of the detail of the main entrance, where delicate colonnettes and exquisite reeding set off leaded lights and a fine Dutch door.

Ebbets Field grandstand, from Bedford Avenue and Sullivan Place. June, 1929. The Ebbet's Field Ballpark was named after Charles Ebbets, owner of the Dodgers, who began the park's formation in 1905. Buying the land in small pieces, Ebbets was able, for about $100,000, to secure enough land to begin construction on the field. Though initially planned for 18,00 people, it was eventually expanded to be able to seat more than 31,000. From then on, it would serve as the home as the Dodgers from 1913 to 1957 when they left Brooklyn. By the 1940s the stadium began to suffer structurally and was already being overwhelmed by its limited capacity. These tensions, combined with the Dodger's owner Walter O'Malley getting into disputes with Robert Moses over the location of a new stadium, caused the team to be moved to Los Angeles in 1958. The beloved Ebbet's Field, at this point elderly and abandoned, was torn down and replaced by the Ebbets Field Apartments.

Eastwood Arch, unknown date.

Prospect Park Boathouse, ca. 1909. The Prospect Park Boathouse is a two-story Beaux-Arts style structure clad in terra cotta. The pavilion, which sits on the north shore of the park's lake, was constructed in 1905 to the plans of the firm of Helmle & Huberty. The architects modeled the building on the library of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice. Almost demolished in 1964 when it was an deteriorating and underused structure, the Boathouse became one of the first buildings to be landmarked in 1965, the year the Landmarks Law was passed. The building was restored during various efforts in the 1970s and 1980s. Today, the building houses the Audubon Center, the Audubon Society's only urban interpretive center in the United States, and is a popular wedding venue.

Prospect Park Boathouse, ca. 1907.

Trailer #100 and Car #725 in Malbone Street Tunnel, November 2, 1918. On November 1, 1918 the worst transit disaster in New York City history occurred just outside the eastern edge of Prospect Park. Just below the intersection of Flatbush Avenue, Ocean Avenue, and Malbone Street (now Empire Boulevard) a five-car wooden train on the B.R.T Brighton Beach line took a sharp turn at a speed more than five times faster than it was meant to travel. The first car derailed and smashed into a concrete partition and the second and third cars scraped violently against the tunnel walls. In all about 100 people were killed, and more than 250 passengers were injured in this rush hour crash. A number of factors played into this disaster. The sharp curve in the tunnel, known as "Dead Man's Curve" even before this accident, was a result of a multi-year rerouting of I.R.T and B.R.T lines. The motorman, Edward Luciano, was an inexperienced driver who usually served as a dispatcher, but was pushed into service by a motorman's strike. He was also suffering from the flu, was on a double shift, and had only the week before lost a child to influenza. Malbone Street was soon renamed Empire Boulevard, to distance it from the tragedy.

January 31, 2019, would have been Jackie Robinson’s 100th birthday. In honor of this occasion, here are some locations in New York City where you can walk in the footsteps of an American hero.

Farmhouse on Flatbush Avenue, opposite Fenimore Street; ca. 1920. The house is said to have been built by Samuel Gerritsen in about 1796. The Gerritsen family were early Dutch settlers of Kings County, and operated a mill on the creek separating the towns of Gravesend and Flatlands as early as the 1690s. The mill burned in 1935, and today its former site is included in Marine Park, just east of the Gerritsen Beach neighborhood. The farmhouse on Flatbush Avenue passed through many owners during the 19th century, and was at one point "famous for its ivy and garden." The house was demolished in 1926.

The Lefferts Historic House, ca. 1783. The Lefferts Historic House is the former home of Continental Army Lieutenant Pieter Lefferts. Originally located on Flatbush Avenue when it was built 1783 (really rebuilt from the remains of the earlier home burned by the British during the war), it was relocated to Prospect Park in 1918 and later landmarked. Today it operates as a museum that specializes in children’s educational programs and exhibits the family life of rural Brooklyn in the 1820s.

Concert Grove, Prospect Park, unknown date. Concert Grove was designed in 1887 as a place for park goers to enjoy musical performances, as evidenced by the 1890s busts of Beethoven and Mozart. The pagoda was converted to a snack bar in 1950, and damaged in a 1974 fire. Its present restoration was completed in 1987, marking the Grove's centennial.

Since its opening in the 1860s, Prospect Park has been a landmark in the life of many New York families and tourists. In this collection, we'll show you Prospect Park through the people who have traversed through it.

Binnen Falls and Bridge, Prospect Park, unknown date.

75 Maple Street, ca. 1924. Designed by Albert Morton Grey in 1922, this simple neo-Georgian home was built for Jeanne M. Reynolds. The facade is English-bond brick and the projected bay entrance (which is unusually on the side of the house) remains.

Binnen Bridge, unknown date. Binnen Bridge is located between the Prospect Park Boathouse and the Music Pagoda. It spans the Binnen waters and an impressive man-made waterfall. Its name, picked by Olmsted, derives from the Dutch word “within.” It signifies that the rustic-bridge is located deep with Prospect Park.

Former Prospect Park Carousel, ca. 1900.

The ca, 1783 Lefferts Historic House is located in the southeastern corner of Prospect Park. It was moved to this site in 1918 from its original location on Flatbush Avenue between Maple and Midwood Streets after being given to the city by the Lefferts family. Peter Lefferts (1753-1791), builder of the house, was an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution and later a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and one of the wealthiest men in Kings County. Peter's descendant, John Jeffers (1827-1893) was no only a principal of the Flatbush Water Works and the Flatbush gas Company, but was also a director of three of the county's banks. The Lefferts House has been operated as a museum since 1920 and represents the large, finely appointed Dutch-American farmhouses that evolved in the later 18th century as Dutch families adapted elements of English Georgian architecture and decoration, such as the two-tiered gambrel roof and the central hall.

(Attributed to Corry B. Comstock, 1924-25) Flatbush Avenue, already a well-traveled street in the 19th century, became a major commercial thoroughfare in the 20th century as the neighborhoods around it were built up. Even the Lefferts family acknowledged this and apparently did not impose covenants on its lots lining the east side of the avenue. Residents and civic organizations closely watched the development and loudly protested any new building they believed was out of character. Such was the case for this bakery, which was criticized as too large and too industrial. One article quoted an aggrieved neighbor as saying that, “It seems almost criminal to permit a factory to be constructed at the entrance to one of the finest residential sections of the boro.” In spite of these concerns, the bakery was eventually built by the General Baking Company. Its design has been attributed to Comstock, who designed several bakeries in the city, including at least one other for the same company. Contemporary passersby might wonder what all the fuss was about. The two-story building fits nicely in its context (although the clock tower would have stood out at the time) and its spare, Classical details, fine brickwork, and terracotta ornament are both restrained and well-executed. Locals were eventually won over and fondly remember the lovely aroma wafting from this direction until the bakery closed in 1996.

135-139 Maple Street, 1925. Check out the address on the steps on no. 135 at left. It is still visible more than 90 years later!

Gas station at Flatbush Avenue and Chester Court; April, 1923. This 1842 farm house was the home of Cornelius Jeremiah "Corneel" Vanderbilt, son of the shipping and transportation magnate Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt, during the late 19th century. Corneel, who was said to suffer from epilepsy, was held in ill-regard by his wealthy father, an opinion compounded by his repeated business errors. The junior Vanderbilt, then living in Connecticut, died by suicide in 1882. According to photographer Eugene L. Armbruster, the house was converted into a gas station with an attached storefront in 1922 and razed in 1926.

Former Concert Grove House; unknown date. One of the original features of the Concert Grove area was the Concert Grove House. The structure stood as a shelter until 1949, when Parks Commissioner Robert Moses demolished it and converted the nearby Concert Pavilion into a snack bar.

These two teams (which now play on opposite sides of the country) have been rivals since they met at the 1941 World Series. The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the Bronx-repping Yankees 4-7 in 1941. This spurred rivalry that has lasted decades.

Niederstein's Prospect Park Hotel at the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Malbone Street (Empire Boulevard); ca. 1900. The proprietor, John Niederstein, Jr., was born in New York in 1871. His father, also John Niederstein, had emigrated from Prussia and owned the Niederstein Hotel and Restaurant in Middle Village, Queens. The younger Niederstein's hotel — really a tavern with a few furnished rooms for rent attached in order to skirt the Raines Law, which prohibited alcohol sales on Sundays — often made local headlines as an establishment of ill repute. In response to a letter attributed to "a young man," the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published an investigation into Niederstein's establishment on October 15, 1901, under the headline "Objectionable Resort Located in Flatbush." The report largely corroborated the "young man's" allegations that dancing and drinking in mixed company went on until the early morning hours. Three days later, the Eagle printed a letter from Niederstein refuting the claims, and asserting that "the dances conducted in his hall are conducted in the straightest possible manner," that his establishment was "the resort of the best element of Germans in this city," and that insinuations of louche behavior and drunkenness were untrue, as were claims that rooms could be rented for racy assignations — but that "if such places are there it is the business of somebody to look after them — not his." Niederstein's made the news for a variety of reasons, some mundane (social function listings); some odd (Niederstein and his hunting partners "shot a big moose" in the Maine woods); and some salacious, including a 1902 tale of an impromptu wedding featuring a runaway groom with a false name and a wooden leg. (The latter spurred a libel suit against the Eagle, which concluded with a $5,000 judgement in the bride's favor.) As early as 1900, plans to expand subway service along the BMT's Franklin Avenue and Brighton lines called for razing Niederstein's hotel to make room for a rail yard. Plans eventually shifted to storage tracks beneath Ocean Avenue, with the site eventually becoming part of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden grounds. The Parks Department's 1903 Annual Report indicated that property was "in the process of being condemned," and the hotel itself was likely demolished by 1905. After the closure of his Brooklyn establishment, Niederstein went on to have a second act in politics: he was elected Queens County clerk in 1906, over the objection of opponents who cited his hotel's reputation. Niederstein died of cirrhosis four years later, shy of his fortieth birthday.

Oriental Pavilion, Prospect Park, unknown date.