Facts About the District

LINKS:

Victorian Flatbush

home.att.net/~ebasics/Victorianflatbush.html
livinginvictorianflatbush.blogspot.com/2006/09/history-of-prospect-park-south.html
web.honorscollege.cuny.edu/student-projects/neighborhoods/brooklyn_college/VHistory.html

Historic Photographs

East Flatbush: http://www.brooklynpix.com/catalog24.php?locality_no=11601
Flatbush 1: http://www.brooklynpix.com/catalog9.php?locality_no=11801
Flatbush 2: http://www.brooklynpix.com/catalog18bk.php?locality_no=11802
Kensington: http://www.brooklynpix.com/catalog5.php?locality_no=12201

Government Services

Access NY: https://a858-ihss.nyc.gov/ihss1/en_US/IHSS_homePage.do
New York City Government Agencies and the Mayor: www.nyc.gov
Brooklyn Borough President: www.brooklyn-usa.org

District Libraries

Flatbush Branch: brooklynpubliclibrary.org/branch_library_detail.jsp?branchpageid=105
Cortelyou Branch: brooklynpubliclibrary.org/branch_library_detail.jsp?branchpageid=105
Crown Heights Branch: www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/branch_library_detail.jsp?branchpageid=162

DID YOU KNOW....

The original name of Flatbush Avenue was Main Road?
Erasmus Hall was named for Desiderius Erasmus, the Dutch scholar who brought the "New Learning" to Henry VIII's England?
The Town of Flatbush was formerly called Midwout and Vlacke Bos - meaning, in Dutch, the middle-woods, and the flatlands covered with tresses, or bush? Both names were used indiscriminately until the beginning of the eighteenth century, when the more English form of Flatbush finally prevailed.
The Flatbush area includes present-day Prospect Park South, Ditmas Park, Midwood, and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, East Flatbush, Lefferts Manor, Kensington, Fiske Terrace, Beverley Square West?
Over twenty languages are spoken in the Flatbush area?
Three Flatbush area steel bands bands participated in the 2006 West Indian – American Day Carnival?
Casym, a Flatbush area steel band finished first in the 2006 West Indian – American Day Carnival competition?
The Prospect Park South motto was rus in urb (country in the city)?
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg grew up in Midwood?
Kensington may be the most culturally diverse neighborhood in the country? Among its numerous residents are south Asians (including Bangladeshi and Pakistani), Chinese, Irish, Polish, Albanians, Russians, Mexicans and Caribbeans (including representatives of St. Vincent, St. Kitts and Puerto Rico).
Albermarle and Kenmore Terraces, off East 21st Street, were built on land owned by the Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church and Teunis Bergen?
The land purchased to build Beverley Square West was Catherine Lott's farm and Ditmas Park West was farmland that belonged to the Ditmas family?
The century-old, wooden train station servicing Fiske Terrace was designated a landmark in 2004?
The top 15 countries represented in the 40th Council District, by country of birth, are Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Ukraine, Russia, Barbados, Panama, Pakistan, Mexico, China, Domincan Republic, United Kingdom, Nigeria and China/Taiwan?
The first female rabbi from the Syrian Jewish community is from Flatbush? Dianne Cohler-Esses was the first female rabbi to be ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1995.

QUIZ

Question: Which of the following supporters of the creation of Erasmus Hall have the same names as streets found in Flatbush?

Jacob LEFFERTS
Joris MARTENSE
Peter LEFFERTS
Johannes E. LOTT
William B. GIFFORD
Peter CORNELL
Matthew CLARKSON
Aquila GILES
Garret MARTENSE
Cornelius VANDERVEER
Justice John VANDERBILT

Answer: Jacob and Peter Lefferts, Joris and Garret Martense, Johannes E. Lott

Question: Can you name most of the languages spoken in the district?

Answer: Arabic

Chinese
Creole
English
French
Greek
Hebrew
Hungarian
Italian
Korean
Patois
Persian
Polish
Russian
Serbo-Croation
Spanish
Urdu
Vietnamese
Yiddish

Question: Which Flatbush area steel bands participated in the 2006 West Indian – American Day Carnival? (See DID YOU KNOW for a clue.)

Answer:
CYP - CARIBBEAN YOUTH PANORAMICS
CASYM
CROSSFIRE

Question: Can you name the historic districts located in the Flatbush area?

Answer: Ditmas Park, Prospect Park South, Prospect Park-Lefferts Gardens/Lefferts Manor, along with parts of Lefferts Avenue and Sterling Street

Question: Can you name the two major hospitals in East Flatbush?

Answer: Kings County and SUNY Downstate Medical Center

Answer:Question: Between which years were the homes in Beverley Square East primarily built?

Answer: Between 1898 and 1901

Question: Do you know which fashion designer, known for popular fashions sold in Target stores, graduated from the Yeshivah of Flatbush?

Answer: Issac Mizrahi

Question: Can you name the neighborhoods that comprise Victorian Flatbush?

Answer: Caton Park, Prospect Park South, Albermarle-Kenmore Terrace, Beverley Square West, Beverley Square East, Ditmas Park West, Ditmas Park, West Midwood, Midwood Park, South Midwood, Fiske Terrace.

SOME NOTABLE FLATBUSH AREA STUDENTS

Erasmus Hall High School:

Nobel Prize Winners

Dr. Eric Kandel, (1944); winner of Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology, 2000
Dr. Barbara McClintock, (1919); winner of Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology, 1986

Hall of Fame

Jeff Barry (Joel Adelberg), (1955); songwriter/producer; Songwriters Hall of Fame member
Al Davis; Oakland Raiders owner, Pro Football Hall of Fame member
Waite Hoyt; Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher for the New York Yankees broadcaster for the Cincinnati Reds.
Ned Irish; Founder of the New York Knicks, member of the Basketball Hall of Fame

Sports

Billy Cunningham, (1961); player and coach, Philadelphia '76ers basketball team
Norm Drucker, professional basketball official
Roger Kahn, (1945); sportswriter, author of several books including The Boys of Summer
Sid Luckman, (1935); football champion with the Chicago Bears
Jerry Reinsdorf, (1953); owner of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox
Cheryl Toussaint, (1970); athlete; Olympic gold medalist, 1972

Business

Earl G. Graves (1952); publisher of Black Enterprise magazine
Samuel LeFrak, (1936); real estate developer

Pulitzer Prize

Bernard Malamud, (1932); author and educator; Pulitzer Prize for The Fixer, 1967, Magic Barrel, 1958

Entertainment Legend

Joseph R. Barbera, (1928); artist; cartoonist; co-creator of Tom & Jerry cartoons

Art

Arthur M. Sackler, MD (1931); art historian and collector; Collection of African and Ancient Art is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.

Brooklyn College:

Politics

Barbara Boxer (B.A. 1962); United States Representative and United States Senator (D - California)
Shirley Chisholm (B.A. 1946); first African American U.S. Congresswoman, 1968–82
Bob Dole (Army Special Training Program 1943, 1944); United States Senator from Kansas and Republican Presidential nominee in 1996
Marty Markowitz (B.A. 1970); Senator in the New York State Legislature; Brooklyn Borough President (2001, present)

Business

Bruce Chizen (B.S. 1978); President & CEO, Adobe Systems
Manuel F. Cohen (B.S. 1933); Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission, 1964-69
Delia McQuade Emmons (B.A. 1973); Senior Vice President, American Stock Exchange
Michael Lynne (B.A. 1961); President & COO, New Line Cinema
Marge Magner (B.A. 1969); Chairman and CEO, Citigroup Global Consumer Group
Harvey Pitt (B.A. 1965); former Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission
Thomas Tizzio (B.A. 1962); President & Director, American International Group

Pulitzer Prize

Oscar Handlin (B.A. 1934); Carl M. Loeb University Professor Emeritus, Harvard University; winner of the Pulitzer Prize in history, author
Frank McCourt (M.A. 1967); Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Angela's Ashes and 'Tis
Victor Lasky (1940); Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and syndicated newspaper columnist
Paul Moses (B.A.) 1974; Pulitzer Prize-winning Journalist and former city editor at Newsday

Nobel Prize

Stanley Cohen (B.A. 1943); biochemist and Nobel laureate (Physiology or Medicine, 1986)

Midwood High School

Government

William C. Thompson, Jr.; Comptroller of the City of New York
Matilda Cuomo; Founder, Mentoring USA and former First Lady of the State of New York

Entertainment

Woody Allen; Writer, Director

Business

Sy Syms; Clothier