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A typical Park Slope block in spring.
'Park Slope' is a neighborhood in the western section of
Brooklyn,
New York City's most populous
borough. Park Slope is roughly bounded by Fourth Avenue, Prospect Park West, Flatbush Avenue, and Fifteenth Street. It takes its name from its location on the western slope of neighboring
Prospect Park. Seventh Avenue and Fifth Avenue are its primary commercial streets, while its east-west side streets are populated by many historic
brownstones.
Park Slope is characterized by its historic buildings, top-rated restaurants, bars, and shops, as well as close access to
Prospect Park, the
Brooklyn Academy of Music, the
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the
Brooklyn Museum, and the
Central Library (as well as the Park Slope branch) of the
Brooklyn Public Library system.
[1]
The neighborhood had a population of more than 62,000 as of the 2000 census,
[2] resulting in a population density of approximately 68,000/square mile (or approximately 26,000/square kilometer) in the area bounded by Fourth Avenue, Prospect Park West, Flatbush Avenue, and Fifteenth Street.
In December 2006 ''Natural Home'' magazine named Park Slope one of America's 10 best neighborhoods based on criteria including parks, green spaces and neighborhood gathering spaces; farmer’s markets and community gardens; public transportation and locally-owned businesses; and environmental and social policy.
[3] Park Slope is part of
Brooklyn Community Board 6.
History
Early history
The area that today comprises the neighborhood of Park Slope was first inhabited by the
Canarsee Native Americans. The
Dutch colonized the area by the 1600s and farmed the region for more than 200 years. During the
American Revolutionary War on
August 27,
1776, the Park Slope area served as the backdrop for the beginning of the
Battle of Long Island, also called the Battle of Brooklyn, the first pitched battle between the British and the Continental Army under the command of
George Washington. In this battle, over 10,000
British Redcoats and
Hessians routed outnumbered American forces at Battle Pass. What appeared as a major defeat for the colonials was actually the first of many of Washington's tactical retreats. The historic site of Battle Pass is now preserved in Prospect Park, and on Fifth Avenue there is a reconstruction of a stone farmhouse where a countercharge covered the American retreat.
19th-century development
The architectural details of one of Park Slope's buildings.
In 1814, ferry service from the nearby Brooklyn Terminal linked the Park Slope and
South Brooklyn region to
Manhattan, a thriving business center at the time. By the 1850s, a local
lawyer and railroad
developer named
Edwin Clarke Litchfield (1815-1885) purchased large tracts of what was then farmland. Through the
American Civil War era, he sold off much of his land to residential developers. During the 1860s, the City of Brooklyn purchased his estate and adjoining property to create the famous 526 acre (2 km²)
Prospect Park, designed by
Frederick Law Olmsted and
Calvert Vaux.
Park Slope’s
bucolic period ended soon after. By the late 1870s, with horse-drawn rail cars running to the park and the ferry, bringing many rich New Yorkers in the process,
urban sprawl dramatically changed the neighborhood into a
streetcar suburb. Many of the large
Victorian mansions on Prospect Park West, known as the Gold Coast, were built in the 1880s and 1890s to take advantage of the beautiful park views. Today, many of these buildings are preserved within the 24-block Park Slope Historic District, one of New York's largest landmarked neighborhoods. By 1883, with the opening of the
Brooklyn Bridge, Park Slope continued to boom and subsequent
brick and
brownstone structures pushed the neighborhood's borders farther. The 1890 census showed Park Slope to be the richest community in the United States.
In 1892, President
Grover Cleveland presided over the unveiling of The Soldiers and Sailors Arch at
Grand Army Plaza, a notable Park Slope landmark.
The
Old Stone House is a 1930 reconstruction of the Vechte-Cortelyou House which was destroyed in 1897. It is located at Fourth Avenue between Third and Fourth Streets beside the former Gowanus Creek.
Baseball history
Baseball has played a prominent role in the history of the Park Slope area. From 1879-1889, the
Brooklyn Atlantics (later to become the
Dodgers) played at
Washington Park on 5th Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets. When the park was destroyed by a fire, the team moved to their part-time home in
Ridgewood,
Queens and then to a park in
East New York. In 1898, the "New" Washington Park was built between Third and Fourth Avenues and between First and Third Streets near the
Gowanus Canal. The team, by this point known as the Dodgers, played to an ever-growing fan base at this location. By the end of the 1912 season, it was clear that the team had outgrown the field, and the neighborhood. Team owner
Charles Ebbets moved the team to his
Ebbets Field stadium in
Flatbush for the beginning of the 1913 season.
[4] The team went on to have historic crosstown rivalries with both the
New York Giants and
New York Yankees.
Crash of United Flight 826
Main articles: 1960 New York air disaster
On
December 16,
1960, two airliners collided above
Staten Island, killing 135 people in what was the worst U.S. aviation disaster to that time. One of the airplanes, a
Douglas DC-8 operating as
United Airlines Flight 826, was able to stay airborne for a few miles before crashing near the corner of Sterling Place and Seventh Avenue
[5], destroying several buildings. Almost everyone on board was instantly killed, but one 11-year-old boy survived the night before succumbing to his injuries.
Blight and renewal
A close-up of houses.
Through the 1950s, Park Slope saw its decline as a result of
suburban sprawl and bearish local industries. Many of the
wealthy and
middle-class families
fled for the suburban life and Park Slope became a rougher,
working class neighborhood.
The precursor to renovated brownstones and boutique bohemianism was an urban renewal process started by working families and a community of
feminists, many of them
lesbians.
[6] By the 1960s, an official revitalization movement was in full swing to preserve the neighborhood's historic row houses, stately brownstones, and
Queen Anne,
Renaissance Revival, and
Romanesque mansions. With the historic Park Slope district (around Seventh Avenue) seeing a rebirth, the rest of the area saw a similar increase in popularity.
In the late 1970s, the area around Fifth Avenue in Park Slope was suffering from widespread abandonment and blight, with more than 200 vacant buildings and 150 vacant lots within one mile. As a result of the neighborhood's close proximity to Prospect Park, and the many well-built apartment houses and brownstones, this region also became ripe for renewal.
By the 1990s, partly as a result of inflated
Manhattan rents along with the inflated
dot-com economy, people who might otherwise have lived in Manhattan began moving to Park Slope in large numbers. The influx was mainly families and young professionals:
hipsters tended to move to
Williamsburg, while
yuppies tended to move to Park Slope and Greenpoint.
During the second major boom for the neighborhood, Park Slope evolved into a racially and economically mixed neighborhood, a place where
stock brokers live alongside
poor and middle-class working families. But, this phenomenon is far from natural and is the result of much
planning and
activism by local
community organizations, like the Fifth Avenue Committee, that fought to maintain much of the neighborhood's
diversity. A 2001 report by the
New York City Rent Guidelines Board found that from 1990 to 1999,
rents in New York City increased by 3.5-4.4% per year, depending on what kind of building the apartment was in.
[7] The explosion of property values inspired real estate agents to be increasingly generous about the borders of Park Slope, not unlike the expansion of
Fort Greene into
Bedford-Stuyvesant; South Slope,
Prospect Heights,
Windsor Terrace,
Gowanus,
Greenwood Heights, and
Boerum Hill all became to some extent part of greater Park Slope.
The negative impact, however, of this renewal is the displacement of the immigrant population that settled here in the 1980s. As the more affluent began to move into Park Slope, the rising rents made it difficult for low-income residents to stay. Thanks to rent stabilization and the "cachet" of specific addresses, it is not uncommon to find those same early immigrants who moved into the neighborhood living adjacent to renters paying two to three times higher rent.
The commercial impacts of the renewal can also be seen along the popular Fifth Avenue stretch, where numerous banks and bars have replaced old neighborhood staples such as the
Salvation Army and once popular
dollar stores. Similarly, on Seventh Avenue, many small family-owned
bookstores and
coffee shops saw a reduction in clientèle when
Barnes & Noble and
Starbucks appeared in the neighborhood. While renewal and the ensuing rush of brand name stores normally signal a driving down of prices, in some industries such as food services, prices have gone up.
Transportation
The neighborhood is well served by the
New York City Subway. Several lines have stops in Park Slope, including the train at
Fourth Avenue,
Seventh Avenue and
15th Street–Prospect Park/Prospect Park West; The and trains at
Atlantic Avenue,
Bergen Street and
Grand Army Plaza; the and (during rush hours only) trains also at Atlantic Avenue; the , , and trains at Prospect Avenue,
Ninth Street,
Union Street and
Atlantic Avenue–Pacific Street; the train also at Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street; and the and trains at Atlantic Avenue and
Seventh Avenue at Flatbush.
Community institutions
★
Park Slope Food Co-op on Union Street is the largest food co-operative in the world with approximately 12,000 members from Park Slope and other neighborhoods. Only members may shop there and membership requires a work commitment of 2 3/4 hours every four weeks.
Houses of worship
Park Slope has many beautiful and historic churches of many denominations, especially Catholic, as well as newer ones, as well as many synagogues to serve the large Jewish population. Park Slope's Muslims are served by mosques outside the neighborhood, though there are several nearby on
Atlantic Avenue in
Boerum Hill and in the Greenwood Terrace area just south of Park Slope.
Schools
Park Slope is home to a number of public and private educational institutions.
★ Poly Prep Lower School
★ Beth Elohim Day School (private preK-K) on Eighth Avenue and Garfield Place.
★
Berkeley Carroll School (private preK-12) on Lincoln Place, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues; Carroll Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues; and President Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues.
★
Brooklyn Free School (private ages 5-15) on Sixteenth Street, between Fourth and Fifth Avenues. See
Free Schools.
★ Montessori School of New York (private ages 2-13) on Eighth Avenue between Carroll and President Streets. See
Montessori.
★
MS 51 (public 6-8) on Fifth Avenue, between Fourth and Fifth Streets.
★
Poly Prep Lower School (private PreK-4) on Prospect Park West between First and Second Streets.
★
PS 39 (public preK-5) on Sixth Avenue, between Seventh and Eighth Streets. Also see
[2].
★
PS 107 (public preK-5) on Eighth Avenue, between Thirteenth and Fourteenth Streets. Also see
[3].
★
PS 124 (public preK-5) on Fourth Avenue, between Thirteenth and Fourteenth Streets.
★
PS 282 (public preK-5) on Sixth Avenue, between Berkeley Place and Lincoln Place.
★
PS 321 (public preK-5) on Seventh Avenue, between First and Second Streets. Also see
[4].
★
Secondary School for Law, Journalism and Research (public 6-12) (Formerly John Jay HS), 237 Seventh Avenue between Fourth and Fifth Streets.
★ St. Francis Xavier (Catholic School) (K-8). 763 President St. between 6th & 7th Ave.
Notable residents
Many notable people have lived in Park Slope, and many more still continue to call it home.
John Linnell of ''
They Might Be Giants'' has lived in Park Slope since the late 1990s. Former resident
KRS-One was born Lawrence Krisna Parker in Park Slope before running away from home to the
Bronx. Author
Pete Hamill was born and raised here. Novelist
Jhumpa Lahiri was a resident until 2005.
Charles Schumer, New York's senior US Senator, lives near
Grand Army Plaza overlooking Prospect Park. Deceased MC
Ol' Dirty Bastard's mother lives in a four-story brownstone in Park Slope. Underground MC
Pumpkinhead also hails from Park Slope, and bases multiple songs of his off it, as well as the names of two
mixtapes.
Many famous writers live in Park Slope including
Jim Knipfel,
Jonathan Safran Foer,
Paul Auster,
Franco Ambriz,
Peter Blauner,
Siri Hustvedt,
John Wray, and
Kathryn Harrison.
Jazz musicians
Danny Kalb,
Joshua Redman and
Michael Weiss, and
Sara Moulton of the
Food Network live in Park Slope.
Actors
Rappers
★
KRS-ONE
★
Pumpkinhead
Artists
★
Alex Grey
★
David Rees (cartoonist)
★
Byron Kim
★
Janine Antoni
★
Lisa Sigal
Writers
Political figures
★
James F. Brennan
★
Hugh Carey
★
Charles Schumer
See also
★
1960 New York air disaster
★
List of Brooklyn, New York neighborhoods
★
Streetcar suburb
References
1. Brooklyn Public Library, accessed August 17, 2006
2. Rezoning, and Redefining, Park Slope Alan Oser
3. Natural Home. "America's Best Eco-Neighborhoods." December 6, 2006.[1]
4. Dodgers Ballparks, accessed May 27, 2006
5. Pillar of Fire, Recalling the Day the Sky Fell, December 16, 1960
6. Replanting the Rainbow Flag
7. Urban Gentry, ''Ford Foundation Report'', Spring 2003
External links
★
Park Slope Neighborhood Profile from ''
New York Magazine''
★
Park Slope architecture
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