page_title: Prospect Lefferts Gardens
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Prospect Lefferts Gardens / History
caption_attribution_description: PLG Arts Mural project
context_page_description: Prospect Lefferts Gardens is a residential neighborhood in the Flatbush area of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The community is bounded by Empire Boulevard 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 was designated a NYC Landmark area in 1979 and called the Prospect Lefferts Gardens Historic District.
  The neighborhood contains an ethnically diverse community with a largely Caribbean-American and African-American population. Since the 2000s, Prospect Lefferts Gardens has been gentrifying quickly. Real estate development has increased and new residents from other groups have increased.
  Prospect Lefferts Gardens is part of Brooklyn Community District 9, and its primary ZIP Code is 11225. It is patrolled by the 71st Precinct of the New York City Police Department. Politically it is represented by the New York City Council's 40th District.
context_section_description: The area was originally settled by a Dutch family in 1660, at which time it was within the Town of Flatbush. 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 the Lefferts 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 and early 20th century, the last of which were constructed in the early 1950s. Patio Gardens, the last large development built before the wave of gentrification in the mid-2000s, was constructed in the early 1960s.
  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. In 2014 a third small historic district–Chester Court, a cull-de-sac off the west side of Flatbush Avenue, near Rutland Road, was designated. The Chester Court Historic District has 18 Tudor-revival townhouses, similar to those on Rutland Road in the main Historic District.
  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.
caption: Artists paint murals along Lincoln Road
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