Flatlands

This post courtesy of Explore Brooklyn, an all-inclusive guide to the businesses, neighborhoods, and attractions that make Brooklyn great. Before Brooklyn was a cultural and arts destination, it was first a Dutch settlement known as Breuckelen — named after the town of Breukelen in the Netherlands. The Dutch colonized what is now present-day Brooklyn in 1646,…

Adorable! That’s our description for this 1940s Neo-Colonial brick house in Flatlands. Original features include arched doorways, hardwood floors, and a blue and gray tiled bathroom with blue fixtures. Maybe an enterprising buyer could restore the rolled steel casement windows (still intact next door) and recently tiled floor in the entry and kitchen. The kitchen,…

Comment: Three out of four gone.  Open House Picks 2/28/2014 [Brownstoner]

Our city’s Dutch ancestry is most often represented by the streets and neighborhoods now bearing the surnames of the many Dutch families who settled throughout Brooklyn.

Read Part 1 of this story. In 1896, two Brooklyn entrepreneurs, Thomas Adams, Jr. and Percy Williams bought the Jamaica Bay side of Bergen Island, off the coast of Flatlands and Canarsie. The island had belonged to the Bergen family for centuries, and was part of an isolated community of small farms in this rural…