At the Landmarks Preservation Commission this morning, commissioners voted unanimously to landmark the East 25th Street Historic District in Flatbush.

The designation was not a shock, given that at a previous public hearing on September 22, residents and commissioners alike were effusive with their praise of the block and its eventual landmark status.

“This is thrilling,” said Commissioner Fred Bland. “If such a deserving historic district can be lurking somehow out of our reach or out of our understanding, there must be others out there as well that we should be looking to. It gives me great hope that more districts can be designated.”

map of proposed historic district
Map via NY Landmarks Preservation Commission

The proposed district, on East 25th Street between Clarendon Road and Avenue D, contains a “remarkably cohesive group” of 56 Renaissance Revival row houses, according to the LPC, built between 1909 and 1912 by the Henry Meyer Building Company. They were built as single-family homes.

It is the first historic district east of Flatbush Avenue below Prospect Park.

east 25th street historic district
Photo by Susan De Vries

Commissioner John Gustafsson praised the “community spirit” of the block, calling the process a model of preservation. “I wish we could clone these people and share them with the entire rest of the city,” he joked.

LPC Chair Sarah Carroll, who noted that this is the first historic district that the commission has taken from the point of calendering to voting completely over virtual meetings, seconded the praise of the other commissioners. “I find this intersection between historic preservation and community to be so rewarding,” she said.

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