Prospect Lefferts Gardens Annual Tour Sunday
On May 22 from noon to 5 p.m., the 35th annual tour of Lefferts Manor, from noon to 5 p.m., will feature 10 houses, each with a garden, from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They include a three-story 1899 town house decorated with vintage collectibles and artworks; a Queen Anne-style frame house with…
On May 22 from noon to 5 p.m., the 35th annual tour of Lefferts Manor, from noon to 5 p.m., will feature 10 houses, each with a garden, from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They include a three-story 1899 town house decorated with vintage collectibles and artworks; a Queen Anne-style frame house with 50-year-old azaleas in its garden; and the parlor floor and grounds of a free-standing 1910 house with an L-shaped porch and stained-glass windows, which is being renovated. Infants are allowed only if they are in front packs. Tickets, $20, at Mike’s International Restaurant, 552 Flatbush Avenue (Maple Street). Advance tickets, $15, and information: (718) 284-6210, (718) 462-0024.
Lefferts Manor Annual Tour [Zapix.com]
Spring Calendar [NY Times]
I grew up at 100 Woodruff Ave., but left there 30 years ago. I am so curious about the neighborhood and the building itself. Can anybody tell me anything?
My wife and I did the tour today and were very favorably impressed by the people we met. This is a very together nabe and shows that peoples of many origins can share a common love for an area and translate it into a solid togetherness that is inspiring.
BTW, there are photographs of several of the houses on this years tour on the last page of the current issue of the Lefferts Manor Echo, a PDF version of which can be found here:
http://www.zapix.com/leffertsmanor/newsletter.shtml
UH OH–I wrote Clarkson STREET for the southern boundary of PLG–actually its Clarkson AVENUE–Clarkson Street is in Tribeca–our neighborhood doesn’t extent THAT far 🙂
OK Anonymous,you asked for it 🙂
Lefferts Manor is a ten block area that was part of the Lefferts family farm. The boundaries are the south side of Lincoln Road to the north side of Fenimore Street and Flatbush to Rogers Avenues. In 1893, James Lefferts started to sub-divide this land and included covenants in the deeds concerning the type of construction and limiting the lots to single family use. The sale of Lefferts family land started just before the merger of the town of Flatbush with the city of Brooklyn in 1894, after which the land would be taxed as urban lots rather than farm land. The actual Lefferts Manor name seems to date to 1919 when the Lefferts family finished selling off their lots. The Lefferts Manor Association was founded as a homeowner association to enforce the deed covenants. The LMA continues to this day and works on issues involving neighborhood beautification,historic preservation, and various quality of life issues as well as enforcing the covenant.
The name Prospect Lefferts Gardens was coined in 1969 by area residents in Lefferts Manor and surrounding blocks who believed that work had to be done to preserve a larger area than tiny Lefferts Manor. They founded the Prospect Lefferts Gardens Neighborhood Association (PLGNA)which covered the area from Ocean to New York Avenues and from Empire Blvd. to Clarkson Street. The name refers to PROSPECT Park, the LEFFERTS farm and Lefferts Manor, and the Botanic GARDEN. Among other things PLGNA started a house tour and hired community organisers to work with tenants in apartment buildings. PLGNA went out of existance about ten years ago, but there have been attempts to revive it and the current attempt seems to be be working.
The Prospect-Lefferts Gardens Historic District was established by the city LPC in 1979 and includes all of Lefferts Manor, the north side of Lincolnn Road from Just west of Bedford Ave. toRogers Ave., plus two blocks each of Lefferts Ave. and Sterling Street between Bedford and Nostrand Aves. Unfortunately some really beautiful blocks were left out of the historic district, most notably IMO Parkside Ave, between Flatbush and Bedford, and two cul-de-sacs, Chester Court (off of Flatbush Ave) and Parkside Court, a private street off of Parkside Avenue which is left off of some street maps (BTW a house on Parkside Ct.is on this year’s tour.
The MOST confusing thing IMO is the relationship of Lefferts Manor to Prospect Lefferts Gardens since all of LM is within PLG.
I think you mean Maple Street between Flatbush and Bedford Avenue for the free standing brick houses.
What is complicated by the name is Lefferts Manor and Prospect Lefferts Garden. The “Manor” is the Historic district of Prospect Lefferts Garden.
Prospect-Lefferts Gardens is a neighborhood inBrooklyn , NY,
bordered by Empire Boulevard on the north,
Clarkson Avenue on the south,
Ocean Avenue and Prospect Park on the west
and New York Avenue on the east.
The boudaries of the historic district where almost all the houses are single family, can be seen at this link. Scroll down to page 10, it takes a minute for the page to load it is big:
http://www.hdc.org/HDCwinter2004.pdf#page=1
Yes, please explain!!! I’m always confused. Which section has the gorgeous detatched brick houses? We looked at one of those a few years back. It was fabulous.
Oh, BTW, its the “Prospect Lefferts Gardens” rather than the “Lefferts Manor” tour. Even though the annual tour is sponsored by the Lefferts Manor Association (which covers the part of the neighborhood with single-family deed covenants) the tour covers the entire neighborhood. Two of the homes on tour this year’s are outside of “the Manor” (on Parkside Court and Fenimore Street).
The boundaries of “Prospect Lefferts Gardens,” the “Prospect-Lefferts Gardens Historic District,” and “Lefferts Manor” are kind of complicated–I’d be glad to explain them if anyone’s interested.
Here are two descriptions that were left off the posting (my fault–I sent an early version):
a three-story 1908 limestone and brownstone neo-Renaissance residence skillfully restored to blend classic style with modern function
and filled with the owner’s original sculptures and decorative designs
• the parlor floor and gardens of an “in-progress” 1910 freestanding
stucco home with L-shaped porch and spectacular stained-glass windows
Unfortunately one house–the “three-story 1899 town house decorated with vintage collectibles and artworks” had to withdraw, so there are now nine houses on tour.