Prospect Lefferts Gardens is a residential neighborhood in the Flatbush neighborhood of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The area is bounded by Empire Boulevard (formerly Malbone Street) to the north, Clarkson Avenue to the south, New York Avenue to the east, and Ocean Avenue/Prospect Park to the west. Prospect Lefferts Gardens is part of Brooklyn Community Board 9 and is serviced by the New York City Police Department’s 71st Precinct.
The neighborhood contains an ethnically diverse community with a largely Caribbean population.However, in recent years, Prospect Lefferts Gardens has become one of Brooklyn’s most gentrifiedneighborhoods. Residents from parts of Manhattan have been moving in, and residents from Park Slope as well.
Name
The name Prospect Lefferts Gardens was created in 1968 by the Prospect Lefferts Gardens Neighborhood Association. It is unclear whether a hyphen was intended as part of the name as the organization never used it in literature or communications with the community. It did however use a hyphen when the organization incorporated in 1970. Some of the confusion, which extends to media coverage, appears to stem from a historic district within the community which shares a name with the area but was given a hyphen for unknown reasons by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Few residents refer to the complete area as having a hyphenated name.
History
The area was originally settled by a Dutch family in 1660. In 1893 the Lefferts estate was divided by James Lefferts into 600 building lots, now known as Lefferts Manor, and sold to developers. Lefferts observed construction from theLefferts homestead, then located on Flatbush Avenue between Maple and Midwood Streets (now a historic museum located in Prospect Park). In order to ensure that the neighborhood would contain homes of a substantial nature, Lefferts attached land-use deed restrictions, dictating that each lot contain a single family residence built of brick or stone at least two stories in height, among other restrictions. The land-use covenant still exists in Lefferts Manor. Houses in Lefferts Manor were mostly constructed during the late 19th Century, the last of which were constructed in the late 1950s.
Lefferts Manor and parts of Lefferts Avenue and Sterling Street, not in the single-family covenant, were granted landmark status by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on October 9, 1979. The Lefferts Manor Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. In 2009 the neighborhood gained a second landmark district when the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Ocean on the Park Historic District. As a small, early 20th century enclave that is set-back from the street, this historic district consists of only 2 brick and 10 limestone townhouses. Yet it stands in striking architectural contrast to the long line of large and stately apartment buildings which otherwise dominate Ocean Avenue at the southeastern border of Prospect Park.
Concurrent with the development of Lefferts Manor was the growth of the surrounding area, now known collectively as Prospect Lefferts Gardens. Many one and two family homes were constructed in the early 20th Century. Presently, other areas of Prospect Lefferts Gardens contain a mixture of single-family and multi-family homes as well as larger apartment houses.
