West Midwood is a

planned community A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...

and historic enclave in the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

borough of

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. West Midwood is located in central Brooklyn in the southern edge of the community of

Victorian Flatbush Victorian Flatbush is the western section of the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York, bordering Midwood, that is characterized by Victorian houses. The neighborhoods of Victorian Flatbush were developed in the early twentieth century from fa ...

, abutting the northern boundary of the community of

Midwood Midwood is a neighborhood in the south-central part of the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded on the north by the Bay Ridge Branch tracks just above Avenue I and by the Brooklyn College campus of the City ...

. It is bordered by Foster Avenue to the north, the BMT Brighton subway line () to the east, Avenue H to the south, and

Coney Island Avenue Coney Island Avenue is a road in the New York City borough of Brooklyn that runs north-south for a distance of roughly five miles, almost parallel to Ocean Parkway and Ocean Avenue. It begins at Brighton Beach Avenue in Coney Island and goes nort ...

to the west. West Midwood is located south of Prospect Park within what is sometimes referred to as

Ditmas Park Ditmas Park is a historic district in the neighborhood of Flatbush in Brooklyn, New York City. The traditional boundaries of Ditmas Park, including Ditmas Park West, are Ocean Avenue and greater Flatbush to the east, Dorchester Road and the Pros ...

. West Midwood, along with other neighborhoods within Ditmas Park, is policed by the 70th Precinct of the

New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

. West Midwood is part of Brooklyn Community District 14.

History

Spurred by its success developing Vanderveer Park, the first Victorian Flatbush neighborhood, in 1899, the Germania Real Estate and Improvement Company (Germania) purchased the land on which West Midwood and neighboring communities Midwood Park and

Fiske Terrace Fiske Terrace is a planned community and neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Fiske Terrace is located in south central Brooklyn in the southern edge of the community of Flatbush and north of the community of Midwood. It is bounde ...

were to be built. The land was purchased from the Lott family’s extensive farmland holdings, which dated back over 200 years to Peter Lott, who migrated to Flatbush, from Holland in 1652. V’lacks Bos (Anglicized Flatbush), meaning “wooded plain” in Dutch, also carried the name Midwout (Anglicized Midwood), meaning “middle-woods” in Dutch, and the names both reflected the wooded nature of the area and contrasted against Flatlands, an area to the south that was devoid of woods. In addition to development by Germania, between 1905 and 1908, architect and builder Thomas Benton Ackerson’s eponymous T.B. Ackerson Company, simultaneously built and sold forty-two detached homes along Westminster Road in West Midwood for $10,000 each. Design and construction of these houses conformed to Ackerson’s “village in the city” vision and houses were graced with columns and fine details. Similarly, Germania advertised the neighborhood as “country living in the city.” To maintain its suburban aesthetic, utilities and train tracks were kept underground and streets were lined with trees, mainly London Planes and maples. Further keeping with the park-like ambiance, the original property deeds forbade construction of front yard fences. In keeping with West Midwood’s small-town character, residents host annual community-building events such as a Progressive Dinner, a Halloween Parade for the children of Flatbush, and a summer block party, in addition to publishing a seasonal newsletter, among other activities. New residents are invited to join the West Midwood Community Association, which dates back to the neighborhood’s early years.

Transportation

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...

stations serving West Midwood are Newkirk Plaza () and Avenue H (). MTA buses traveling through the area include the .

Bike lanes Bike lanes (US) or cycle lanes (UK) are types of bikeways (cycleways) with lanes on the roadway for cyclists only. In the United Kingdom, an on-road cycle-lane can be firmly restricted to cycles (marked with a solid white line, entry by motor v ...

connect West Midwood to greater

, Cortelyou Road, Prospect Park and its Parade Ground,

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...

, and Ocean Parkway.

References

{{Brooklyn Neighborhoods in Brooklyn Flatbush, Brooklyn