Turrets Galore
One of the first things that strikes you as you encounter the woodframe houses and front lawns of the Northern-most portion of Victorian Flatbush (which Mary Kay calls Caton Park and Prospect Park South-Albemarle) are the turrets on the corners of many of the houses. We thought these two examples, at 101 Rugby Road and…
One of the first things that strikes you as you encounter the woodframe houses and front lawns of the Northern-most portion of Victorian Flatbush (which Mary Kay calls Caton Park and Prospect Park South-Albemarle) are the turrets on the corners of many of the houses. We thought these two examples, at 101 Rugby Road and 1314 Albemarle Road were particularly noteworthy.
I’m going to beat this dead horse a little more.
Brownstoner:
You say that you were driving from Clinton Hill to “Victorian Flatbush,” I seriously have no idea what you mean. I wouldn’t understand “Brownstone Brooklyn” eiter which could be anywhere between Bay Ridge and Williamsburg, technically. Both are that big.
As blogger extraordinaire, and for clarity’s sake, it would help if you identified the neighborhoods by their traditional and accepted names, rather than their architectural genre.
Seems to us “Victorian Flatbush” is a useful term to encompass a broader area than the specific neighborhoods mentioned above, not dissimilar to the way in which one might use the admittedly broader term “Brownstone Brooklyn”. As you’ll see, we are not using it to the exclusion of the smaller neighborhood names.
I live in Ditmas Park West….yes it is Flatbush to me and my house while considered “victorian” to most passers-by is definitely more Edwardian….but to explain that to most is too much work…so I settle for Victorian….
An’ they use to call rubber balls a spaldeen! An’ we’d go out in the street an’ play stickball! An’ you could buy a house for a nickel!
Yes, Ditmas Park has been called Ditmas Park by us Brooklyn people for a long time, but, you know, until pretty recently, people called everything Flatbush–as in, the Dodgers played in Flatbush, there are fancy houses in Flatbush, The IRT goes to Flatbush, everyone’s moving out to Troy Avenue and elsewhere in Flatbush, and just past Flatbush is Marine Park. When houses cost a lot less than a million dollars, people were a lot less obsessed with what general areas were called. So, yeah, Sunset Park was always Sunset Park, but sometimes people called everything past the cemetery Bay Ridge. And below Park Slope was downtown Brooklyn. What part of Flatbush, or downtown Brooklyn, or Bay Ridge was always a follow up question, and only if you cared because you had cousins who lived there.
Ditmas Park is, and has been a well understood neighborhood with all of the attendant features. The number of references to Ditmas Park as a neighborhood and community are vast and varied. In fact, I have yet to find any authoritative reference to “Victorian Flatbush” beyond these types of forums.
The New York Times, New York Magazine, the Village Voice, Corcoran and I’d guess the Ditmas Park Association (founded 1908), to name a few sources, seem to be very comfortable with the Ditmas Park moniker, and conspicuously uncomfortable with the vagueries of “Victorian Flatbush.”
If folks think E. 19th is Flatbush, then let it be Flatbush. There are many wonderful things about just Flatbush, “Victorian” or otherwise. But, it is distinct from other adjacent neighborhoods.
You are sapping New York’s culture with your Real Estate (sem)antics.
Victorian Flatbush is indeed a modern term used to group the rather small developments of freestanding wood frame Victorian houses that were constructed in Flatbush around the turn of the last century. Several neighborhoods which were built at this time in present day Flatbush no longer survive. It is a useful real estate term, but also for designating the modern day community that inhabits this area. Some of the original developements, such as Beverley Square West is only 1 x 5 blocks; most are 2 x 5. Ditmas Park is just a tiny little grouping of homes (albeit with their own architectural history). However, Ditmas Park, like other sections, has no real commercial hub, and community extends to all the neighbrohoods more or less. Ditmas Park also has no schools, by the way. THey are in neighboring BSW, Ditmas Park West, and South Midwood… oh and Caton Park. I think you are using “Ditmas Park” to define all of what we call Victorian Flatbush, which many RE types have done for several years now. It is inaccurate. Ditmas Park is an entirely residential group of about streets, each two blocks long. In itself, it is not self sufficient. None of the Vic Flatbush neighborhoods are. They are however, taken together, the largest surviving neighborhood of freestanding Victorian homes in the country.
Sorry to move off topic, but when exactly did every neighborhood in central brooklyn become “Victorian Flatbush.” This seems like yet another, real estate industry driven attempt to glom the “good” parts with the “bad” parts into one giant superhood.
Unfortunately, this strips much of the well-understood identities of the heretofor recognized geography. Ditmas Park has meaning. It has schools, businesses, good blocks, bad blocks, subway stations, etc. that are distinct from other parts. Defining neighborhoods is not perfect, but it is a mistake to make them improbably large or, I guess, Victorian.
I realize these areas were developed at approximately the same time, but so was most of Brooklyn.
I think the person was attempting to make a joke…again yawn!