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.

Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church ca. 1925 As in Saint Paul's Chapel, Manhattan, the most noteworthy architectural features of this church are the spire and the interior. Surrounded its little cemetery, it creates a picture of the church, unchanged since it was built, perfect in its original setting.

In 1844, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle printed the following prediction “THE CITY OF CHURCHES — such, in time, will be the distinctive appellation of Brooklyn.” In the ensuing decades, the incorporation of new houses of worship matched the pace of residential development and reflected the diverse ancestry of the immigrant communities who settled there. The buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries express the evolution of American church architecture, as dictated by the pride and prosperity of worshippers from Bushwick to Bay Ridge.

In celebration of the Municipal Art Society's 125th Anniversary, we've compiled a list of landmarks older than MAS.

Constructed in 1796, the Reformed Church of Flatbush, located in what is now an African-America and West Indian community, indicates the influence of English Neoclassicism with its central tower and multi-tiered steeple. At least the third church structure on this site, the current church is surrounded by a much older cemetery containing gravestones of many of the village's most notable families of Dutch descent. Some stones have inscriptions in Dutch. The church itself has some beautiful stained-glass windows with coats of arms and dedications of the Dutch families that used to worship there, as well as an old embroidered Brooklyn coat of arms depicting the official seal of the borough of Brooklyn: "even Draght Mack Maght" (old dutch for: "in unity there is strength," often not spelled correctly in its old rendering). It was also the official seal of the Dutch Republic and the Dutch Reformed Church. The church house across from the cemetery has some notable Tiffany windows. The churches at Flatbush, Flatlands, and Brooklyn (now the Old First Reformed Church in Park Slope) were all established in 1654. However, the minister (domino) of the Flatbush church presided over churches of other villages into the mid-18th century. The Dutch Reformed Church was the one of the most potent forces of cultural identity and connection with the Dutch Republic until after the American Revolution. The Dutch language only gave way to English in Kings County's churches in the late 18th century; an English afternoon service was introduced in Flatbush in 1792. Flatbush was the political and cultural heart of Dutch Brooklyn. its original settlement in the 1630s occurred along the Native-American trail cutting diagonally across western Long Island from Jamaica Bay to the ferry landing at the East River. Known as Ferry Road, then Flatbush Road, and finally Flatbush Avenue, this is one of the great historic thoroughfares of America. The first settlement consisted of 48 farmsteads of 50 acres, 24 on each side of the avenue. Farmhouses faced the roadway, and barns and other outbuildings extended behind them on long rectangular plots. Settlement began along the southern reaches of the avenue near the border with Flatlands, but the positioning of the church at the midpoint of the avenue's course through the township fixed its center.

Parsonage of the Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church, 900 Flatbush Avenue; ca. January, 1917. While the congregation dates to 1654, and the current church to 1793, the Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church's parsonage was added in 1853. The parsonage, which included both Greek Revival and Italianate architectural elements, was moved about 200 feet to the southwest in 1918, and now sits at the corner of Kenmore Terrace and East 21st Street.

Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church ARCHITECT: Thomas Fardon DATE: 1793-1798 STYLE: Federal In 1654, under orders from Director General Peter Stuyvesant, the first Dutch Reformed Church was built in Flatbush. In 1793, in the mood of expansion that followed the Revolution, a new church was built. One of the most beautifully scaled church spires in all New York City adorns the tower of this Federal Style church. Built of local stone and Holland brick, the walls rest on a foundation made from stones of an earlier church of 1699, which was demolished to make way for the present structure. The Parsonage, a large, imposing wood-frame residence, was built south of the church in 1853. The Church House was designed by Meyer & Mathieu in 1922. It is a Georgian style structure built of red brick laid in Flemish bond. Members of early Dutch families are interred in the cemetery adjoining the church, which is included in the expanded landmark site.

A fundamental role of the cemetery is to ensure a peaceful, final resting place for loved ones. They are also extraordinary living records of our society. Historic cemeteries tell us about design, ideas about mortality and death, and the historical social and political hierarchies of a locality. Especially important is the rural cemetery. Distinct from church graveyards, this is a 19th-century culmination of a movement that began in 18th-century Europe. The rural cemetery drew heavily on early garden aesthetics, embracing classical ideals of a pastoral utopia as embodied in the Greek region of Arcadia. In fact, nascent cemeteries evolved from garden memorials and burials, leading to a revolution in the way Western culture tended to its dead, and forever impacting its landscapes.

The Dutch Reformed Church on Flatbush Avenue is the oldest continuously used location for religious purposes in New York City. The original church was a wooden chapel built on this site in 1654 with the authorization of Governor Peter Stuyvesant. The current church building was constructed between 1793 and 1798 in the Federal style by architect Thomas Fardon. The stained glass windows were designed and made by the Tiffany Company. They were installed in 1899 to commemorate the descendants of the original Dutch settlers to this part of Brooklyn. The adjacent graveyard is the final resting place for many members of Brooklyn's most prominent early citizens, including the Ditmas, Livingston, Lefferts, Van Siclen and Vanderveer families.