East Flatbush and Flatlands comprise block upon block of neat, well-kept detached homes, with an occasional shopping strip and apartment building for contrast. Its southern flank, Mill Basin, was the home for Brooklyn’s first “modern” mall, the kind you drive to, the kind the teenagers hang out in: Kings Plaza, built in 1970. East Flatbush and Flatlands have been settled since the mid-1600s, however, when the area was called Nieuw Amersfoort, and a few of its ancient homes built by Dutch settlers are still hidden among the ones built after World War II, when the neighborhood started attracting families. These homes are at least 150 years older than their neighbors, though many have been altered over the years to look more modern.
Named for its decidedly nonhilly nature, Flatlands was one of the original five towns of Kings County after the Dutch swindled obtained the land from the Lenape Indians and then drove them out. It was an independent town beginning in 1661 and survived as an entity relatively late because of its remoteness, until its annexation by the City of Brooklyn in 1896; Brooklyn would in turn join Greater New York two years later.
Flatlands Avenue, where this photo was taken, runs straight as an extension of Avenue N at East 35th Street through Flatlands and then gains a couple of lanes and roars into Canarsie, becoming its main east-west shopping street. It runs past Starrett City (Spring Creek Towers) and finally peters out at Brooklyn’s main US Postal Service sorting facility near the boro line. When I bicycled Brooklyn until moving to Queens in 1993, Flatlands Avenue was my main means of entrance and egress from these realms.
In the summer of 2019 I walked near the full length of Flatlands Avenue, and the photographic fruits of this labor will appear on the site sooner or later.
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop, and as always, “comment…as you see fit.”
8/28/20
6 comments
I noticed of that old fire alarm box light on that pole.
Is it still there ?
I lived just off of Flatlands Ave. for many years as a kid. Never thought of Kings Plaza as in Mill Basin. Bergen Beach is between Kings Plaza and Mill Basin, no?
Flatlands is where my father grew up, his family bought a house on 53rd in 1923. It lies beyond the reach of NYC’s extensive subway system. Dad always said
he was from “Flatbush”. Well East Flatbush if you stretched it but to be fair he went to Erasmus Hall which is in Flatbush proper.
Speaking of Mill Basin, what gives with Indiana Walk and Utah walk? Is there some history there?
I was biking along Flatlands today from Ralph Avenue to Schenck (whence I visited the Gateway mall). Retracing my route on a map later, I noticed that if you trace Flatlands westward back beyond its start at East 35th Street, it appears that it could meet Kings Highway just west of Nostrand.
Does anyone have any historical information on when Flatlands Avenue was laid out, and whether it used to extend further west than it does now?
I lived on E57th ST, between Ave J & K, the the ‘Futurama’ houses – attached brick row homes with a community driveway in the back. Had great memories growing up.