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Ditmas Park, Brooklyn: A Landmarked District Inside Flatbush

Ditmas Park, New York

A street in the Ditmas Park Historic District
— Fuzheado, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Ditmas Park takes its name from the Ditmas family, who owned the farmland before it was built on. Development ran from 1902 to 1914 and produced roughly 2,000 to 2,500 buildings, mostly Colonial Revival with Bungalow, Craftsman, Queen Anne and Tudor examples among them. Lewis H. Pounds, Brooklyn Borough President from January 1, 1914 to December 31, 1917, was an early developer here. The tract followed Dean Alvord's neighbouring Prospect Park South, begun in 1899, and Wikipedia lists Ditmas Park among the developments it inspired. The historic district was designated a New York City landmark on July 28, 1981 and listed on the National Register on September 30, 1983. It sits within the broader Flatbush area, and the narrow landmark line and the wider colloquial one have never agreed.

A district inside a district

Ditmas Park is a section of Flatbush rather than a neighborhood alongside it, and two different boundaries circulate under the name. The Landmarks Preservation Commission's designation describes a narrow line around Ocean Avenue, Dorchester Road, Marlborough Road, portions of East 16th and East 17th Streets and Newkirk Avenue. Broader everyday and real-estate use of the name reaches well past that, toward Coney Island Avenue and Foster Avenue and up against Prospect Park South and Kensington. Neither line is definitive, and this page does not pick one.

The houses inside the district are private residences, and the visit is walking the tree-lined streets to look at exteriors and porches. The Craftsman bungalow row on East 16th Street, thirteen houses designed by Arlington D. Isham for builder Harry Grattan in 1908 and 1909, is one such cluster. Flatbush itself is older than any of it: the surrounding town was settled by the Dutch and, during the Revolutionary War, lay in the path of the British advance under Lord Cornwallis after the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776, and was occupied by British forces until 1783.

Getting there

The BMT Brighton Line runs through the area. Cortelyou Road, which serves both Ditmas Park and Flatbush, has the Q at all times, as does Beverley Road. Newkirk Plaza, also described as sitting across Flatbush and Ditmas Park, is served by the Q and the B.

Avenue H, further south on the same line and served by the Q, sits near the border of Midwood and Flatbush and also serves Fiske Terrace; it is not inside Ditmas Park.

What's here

Questions

How do I get to Ditmas Park?

By subway on the BMT Brighton Line. Cortelyou Road and Beverley Road are served by the Q at all times, and Newkirk Plaza is served by the Q and the B.

Is Ditmas Park part of Flatbush?

Sources treat it as a section of Flatbush, and Wikipedia's Flatbush article lists it among the sub-sections understood to fall inside the broader area. The Landmarks Preservation Commission's historic-district line is much narrower than the name's everyday use, and the two do not agree.

Can I go inside the historic houses?

No. The district's roughly 2,000 to 2,500 buildings are private residences. What is on offer is the street itself: exteriors, porches and the 1908-1909 Craftsman bungalow row on East 16th Street.

Connected pages

Shared history

Same region