Prospect Lefferts Gardens Does Brooklyn Its Own Way
This is Prospect Lefferts Gardens
Prospect Lefferts Gardens doesn’t always jump out on a map. Maybe that’s because its accepted Central Brooklyn borders — Empire Boulevard to the north, New York Avenue to the east, Clarkson Avenue to the south, and Ocean Avenue to the west — neatly converge into a half-square-mile-ish rectangle. Yet, this neighborhood is hardly cookie-cutter, an integral aspect of its longstanding appeal. Sometimes, you have to read between the lines.
PLG (what New Yorker doesn’t love an acronym?) isn’t on anyone’s clock but its own. It’s neither stuck in time nor aggressively eyeing the future. Nothing feels incongruous, as eras and ideas mingle alongside one another, and oft-quiet, leafy residential streets turn onto eclectic commercial avenues. No wonder people have adoringly called the neighborhood home for generations.
Believe it or not, the name "Prospect Lefferts Gardens" didn’t arise until 1968 — a means of paying homage to three places lending enduring personality to the area: Prospect Park, Lefferts Manor, and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which lies at its northern border.
Historically speaking, the entire neighborhood is part of Flatbush, a broad swath of Central Brooklyn roughly corresponding to the Dutch settlement of the same name. Before that, it was the domain of the Canarsee people, who laid and trod the trails that informed urbanized Brooklyn’s major thoroughfares — like Flatbush Avenue and Kings Highway, the intersection of which was the site of Keskachane, "the place of meeting for public purpose."
What's In A Name?
While PLG isn’t the only neighborhood on Prospect Park, it racks up specific points for its proximity to Prospect Park Lake, the only freshwater one in the borough. Its eastern shore is an ideal locale to proverbially get away from it all, sit for a while, and maybe see what the swans and mallards are up to. The LeFrak Center at Lakeside, opened in 2013 as part of a 26-acre parkland rehab, was designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, which recently oversaw the design of David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. It notably features two ice rinks: one regulation-size for hockey, covered beneath a midnight blue and silver overhang, and one open-air. In warmer months, the former becomes a roller rink while the latter turns into the Splash Pad, a play area featuring water jets.
Not much further north, you’ll come upon the scenic Beaux Arts-style Boathouse, one of the city’s first historic landmarks and a popular photo-op and event space, and the Audubon Center, which offers free public nature programming for all ages. Slightly onward, right outside the Prospect Park Zoo, sits a genuine piece of Prospect Lefferts Gardens history: the Lefferts family farmhouse. It was relocated there from Flatbush Avenue and Maple Street for preservation purposes in 1918 and now serves as a museum.
Ample Parking
At Calvert Villas, this three-bedroom duplex penthouse features a bilevel terrace connected by spiral staircase.
When the Dutch began populating the Flatbush area in the 1630s, they called it Vlacke Bos, or "flatlands covered with bushes." In 1652, with a patent from New Netherland director-general Peter Stuyvesant, it became one of the six original towns of Breuckelen. After the Dutch colony fell to British control, Vlacke Bos was Anglicized to the rough sound-alike we know today. Flatbush became home to many merchants and farmers, but none more prominent than the Lefferts family — descendants of Leffert Pietersen Van Haughwout, one of Brooklyn’s largest landowners by the time of his death in 1704 — who would come to influence local life for years to come. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Lefferts family once owned all of what’s now Prospect Lefferts Gardens (plus swaths of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights).
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PLG’s housing nails a multi-part harmony of varying yet ultimately dovetailing parts. It’s one of the rare neighborhoods where it’s possible to find mid-rise apartment buildings, ornate row houses, and single-family homes all sharing the same block.
At the north end of the neighborhood, the Lefferts Manor Historic District boasts more than 600 contributing structures dating from 1896 to 1935, most of which are townhouses and freestanding homes. Travel its blocks and you’ll notice several variations in design style, reflective of changing tastes over time. Benjamin Driesler, Axel Hedman, and the firm Slee & Bryson were its most prolific designers, but more than 20 contributed by the time of the last home’s construction — including Louis Berger, aesthetic minder of Ridgewood.
PLG’s independent spirit is well evidenced by its food scene, which keeps the neighborhood’s star ever rising. Abundant locally owned and grown businesses engage every culinary sense with often exciting, occasionally curious, and always delectable offerings.
Allan’s Bakery (1109 Nostrand Ave.) has operated in the area for more than 60 years, starting as an at-home-operated business before surging popularity among hungry neighbors necessitated a brick-and-mortar storefront. The shop, in its third generation of family ownership, and its Caribbean flavors — including its signature hard dough (or "hardo") breads, currant rolls, and beef patties — have held down the corner of Nostrand and Maple ever since. One block up, the bastion of Bajan cuisine that is Culpepper’s (1082 Nostrand Ave.) brings it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Staple plates include fried bake with herring, goat roti, and oxtail served over rice.
Tasteful Living
Public transportation bolstered Prospect Lefferts Gardens’ late 19th-century growth spurt and has kept the area well-connected ever since. Manhattan’s West and East Sides are equally accessible from PLG, where the 2 and 5 trains share the Sterling Street and Winthrop Street stations. Indeed, you can throw on headphones or get lost in a good book while en route from the Upper West Side or Upper East Side without worrying about transferring — not to mention various stations across the Financial District, Tribeca, the West Village, Chelsea, and several others in between. Brooklyn commuters are in luck, too, as Prospect Heights, Downtown Brooklyn and MetroTech, and DUMBO are all within arm’s reach.
Along the BMT Brighton Line, PLG is served by the Q train at Parkside Avenue as well as the B, Q, and Franklin Avenue Shuttle (a transportation cheat code offering transfers to six separate trains) at the previously mentioned Prospect Park station. Travel in a northern trajectory and you’ll eventually hit the Lower East Side, SoHo, the Flatiron District, and nearly every famous Manhattan square. Head the other direction and you'll land at Brighton Beach and Coney Island — ideal for a summer’s day getaway to the ocean, the boardwalk, or the ballgame. The tracks on this line bisect the neighborhood in an open cut, a vestige of when steam engines puffed beachgoers across the borough to grand seaside resorts. Both stations feature above-ground head houses well over a century old.
Take advantage of several bus lines connecting all the spots in between and outside the subway’s realm. For example, the B44 (and its Select Bus Service variant) stops in PLG en route south to Sheepshead Bay and north to Williamsburg — connecting to numerous MTA letters and numbers along the way. PLG is the terminus of the B12 and B16 routes, the former shuttling west to Bay Ridge and the latter east to East New York. It’s also the end of the line for the B43 and B48, each scaling the borough to Greenpoint.
Your best course of action, though, is to come to PLG and enjoy all it is. Flip through the stacks for vinyl gold at Record City (65 Fenimore St.) Sample Paris filtered through a distinct Brooklyn lens at Risbo (701 Flatbush Ave.), where rotisserie-roasted meats headline the menu. Flatten the divide that urban living can often create between people and plants at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (there’s an entrance at the corner of Flatbush Ave. and Empire Blvd.) Lock into the grooves emanating from Drummer’s Grove’s weekly drum circle (2 p.m. to 7 p.m. every Sunday from April to October), a regular community practice since 1968.
If you haven't yet explored this magical half-mile of Brooklyn, you most certainly should.
Getting There
Neil Young wasn’t singing about Cinnamon Girl (583 Flatbush Ave.) when he wrote his 1969 song of the same name. Nevertheless, you might compose an ode to the market-cafe, which offers comfortingly simple bites like bagels with cream cheese, breakfast empanada (baked eggs, hash browns, tomato reduction, cheddar, and optional bacon), homemade pies (keep an eye and at least one taste bud out for the deliciously tart pear-pomegranate), and provisions ranging from sweets to soaps.
Finding a seat at Hamlet Coffee Company (465 Rogers Ave. #1) can trend toward tricky. Despite the chair-based challenges, it is absolutely the spot in PLG if you’re even remotely serious about the brewed stuff. Hamlet grinds and brews up beans from revered roasters including Frukt, La Cabra, Little Wolf, and Sey.
Chase unprecedented taste at Honey Badger (67 Fenimore St.), where you actually never know what will be on the plates placed in front of you throughout a meal. Think avant-garde concoctions that go from confounding to astounding with a single bite — things like acorn cheese or snail ice cream (yes). The restaurant prides itself on being "wild to table," utilizing fresh local ingredients (sometimes foraged or hunted) that are all braised, pickled, smoked, fermented, etc., in-house. Up the ante not with a wine pairing but a water pairing, where you’ll sip high-quality H2O from glaciers, maple trees, and other natural sources.
In search of a drink a little more… robust? Check out the craft beer and bespoke cocktails at Midwood Flats (577 Flatbush Ave.), which also offers delectably elevated gastropub fare and a weekend bottomless brunch. Anything Bar (455 Rogers Ave.) sets the stage nicely with its window decal reading "ICE COLD BEER," and delivers on that promise while adding delightful house cocktails (their Spicy Marge spicy margarita earning its top billing), shareable fare, and the undisputed champion of bar food: a sandwich with fries. Jazz is on the menu every day at Bar Bayeux (1066 Nostrand Ave.) and is presented with no cover charge. A one-drink minimum is enforced, but you’ll have plentiful beer, cocktails, and natural wines to select from.
Rest assured, this handful-of-paragraphs list is only a smattering of the many delicious options available. Standouts are abundant. Checking them off your list is a pastime in and of itself.
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Residence 5A at the Rogers Residences, a brand new development within the Lefferts Manor Historic District.
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Find your place in Prospect Lefferts Gardens
Growth Track
Door to Door
Going vertical, prewar brick co-ops, like 80 Winthrop Street, contrast newer condo developments like the Calvert Collection, a boutique collection of 10 two- to four-bedroom condominiums (including two duplex penthouses) at 624 New York Avenue. Further east, The Rogers Residences, a 20-unit condo on the corner of Rogers and Parkside Avenues, adds sunny modern living across the street from the basketball and handball courts at Winthrop Playground, with the 2 and 5 trains a block away.
Between Flatbush Avenue and the subway tracks, which run in an open-air cut from the days of steam engines, you’ll even find a handful of dead-end streets like Chester Court, boasting 18 landmarked Tudor Revival row houses tucked into a quiet cul-de-sac. In 2009, Ocean on the Park, with 18 townhouses across from Prospect Park, became PLG’s third historic district.
Flatbush, Rogers, and Nostrand Avenues each play host to an exciting array of vibrant shops, enticing eateries, and lively watering holes.
The backyard at Risbo (701 Flatbush Avenue). This Michelin Guide-recommended fast casual favorite pairs its all-day, French rotisserie-inspired menu with lush indoor and outdoor dining spaces and a full bar serving everything from local craft drafts to creative cocktails, natural wine, and zero-proof options.
Winthrop Playground features climbing equipment, basketball and pickleball courts, and a splash pad.
Located where New York Avenue meets Fenimore Street, the just-completed Calvert Collection consists of two discrete buildings: Calvert Villas to the west and Calvert House to the east, together offering a boutique modern living experience with an array of amenities.
The iconic Prospect Park Boathouse, erected in 1905 on the lullwater above Prospect Park Lake, is easily reached from the park's Ocean Avenue entrances. It's a popular venue for weddings and other events.
Cinnamon Girl, a welcoming market-cafe with delectably fresh noshes, exemplifies PLG's small business spirit.
The Parkside Avenue station, one of two in the neighborhood on the BMT Brighton Line. Tracks run in an open cut here, following the route of the historic Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railway.
Agriculture remained vital to Flatbush’s identity and existence well into the 19th century. Maps from the era show a severe lack of planned streets in Flatbush, especially compared with adjacent parts of Kings County in modern-day Park Slope, South Slope, and Windsor Terrace. Even as row houses shot up in Brooklyn Heights and the likes of Bushwick, Greenpoint, and Williamsburg turned industrial, families continued to build farmhouses along what is now north-south Flatbush Avenue, with their corresponding farmland sprawling out to the east and west.
When the Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883, it connected the still-separate cities of New York and Brooklyn, positioning this area as an idyllic suburb — a respite from urban excess conveniently close to it. Prospect Park became the place to be. Weekend excursions endeared New Yorkers to the area, which caused land value to skyrocket. Meanwhile, public transit improvements helped better link rural and urban Brooklyn and beyond. The Lefferts family helped spur this shift by investing in transport entities like the Flatbush Plank Road Company and later the Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railroad — the latter became the BMT Brighton Line, still in use as the B/Q trains from Downtown Brooklyn to Coney Island.
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