Boerum Hill, Brooklyn: A Name Coined in 1964

The Mohawk families on the north end of Smith Street came mostly from the Akwesasne and Kahnawake reserves in Quebec. Many of the men worked as ironworkers on the city's bridges and skyscrapers; the Mohawk language was widely used in daily life, including at the Cuyler Church, and families frequently returned to Kahnawake in the summers.

The historic district that Helen Buckler's association helped win was designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission on November 20, 1973 and added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 26, 1983, under reference number 83001686. Its original core held about 238 contributing rowhouses and a few commercial buildings built between 1845 and 1890, roughly bounded by Pacific, Wyckoff, Bergen, Nevins, Bond and Hoyt Streets. The protected area was roughly doubled in 2018.

From the early 1970s until about 2003 the neighborhood was populated mostly by working- and middle-class African-American and Puerto Rican families; gentrification since the late 1990s shifted it, and by 2012 Boerum Hill had the sixth-highest median home prices of any New York City neighborhood and the highest of any outside Manhattan.

Each fall since 1974 the Atlantic Antic street fair has run along Atlantic Avenue, produced by the Atlantic Avenue Local Development Corporation. It spans about ten blocks across Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill rather than belonging to any one of them, and it was canceled in 2001 after the September 11 attacks, in 2002 over a street-closure policy dispute, and in 2020 for COVID-19.

Bergen Street, at Bergen and Smith Streets, sits on the border of Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill and is served by the F and G at all times.

Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets, at Hoyt and Schermerhorn Streets, sits on the border of Downtown Brooklyn and Boerum Hill. The A and G serve it at all times and the C except late nights.

The Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center complex borders Boerum Hill along with Fort Greene, Park Slope and Prospect Heights. The 2, 4, D, N, Q and R serve it at all times, the 3 at all times except late nights, the 5 and B on weekdays during the day, and the W at rush hours only.

The Long Island Rail Road's Atlantic Terminal, at Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues in Downtown Brooklyn, adjoins that subway complex. It is the primary terminal for the West Hempstead Branch and a peak-hour terminal for some trains on the Hempstead, Far Rockaway, Port Jefferson, Ronkonkoma and Babylon branches; most other service runs as shuttles to Jamaica.