Flatbush

Flatbush is a large, diverse area with strong Caribbean communities, Brooklyn College, wood-frame Victorian houses in sections like Ditmas Park and busy commercial streets such as Flatbush and Nostrand Avenues.

Flatbush was one of the original Dutch towns of Kings County, named for the flat wooded land (“Vlacke Bos”) that settlers found. It remained a village until the late nineteenth century, when the arrival of trains and trolleys turned farmland into residential neighbourhoods. Erasmus Hall, founded as an academy in 1786, is one of the oldest schools in the United States, and its original wooden building still stands inside the campus of today’s high school.

The neighbourhood is a collection of distinct areas. Ditmas Park, Prospect Park South and Fiske Terrace are known for large Victorian houses with porches and gardens, built for commuters in the early 1900s. Around Flatbush Avenue and Church Avenue the streets are busy with markets, Caribbean bakeries, roti shops and clothing stores, and Brooklyn College, founded in 1930 and part of the City University of New York, brings thousands of students every day.

The Kings Theatre, a 1929 movie palace restored and reopened in 2015, hosts concerts, comedy and dance, and the nearby Prospect Park and Brooklyn Botanic Garden make good weekend destinations. The B and Q trains run through Flatbush on the Brighton line, the 2 and 5 reach their terminal at Flatbush Avenue–Brooklyn College, and several bus routes cross the area, though trips to Manhattan can take a while.

Flatbush is home to one of the largest Caribbean communities in the United States, and you can hear Jamaican, Haitian, Trinidadian and many other accents on its streets. The West Indian American Day Carnival takes place on nearby Eastern Parkway each Labor Day weekend and draws huge crowds. Housing ranges from large houses to pre-war apartments and small multi-family buildings, so prices and conditions vary a lot from block to block.