Greenwood Heights is a neighborhood in the

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

borough of

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, named partially after the adjacent

Green-Wood Cemetery Green-Wood Cemetery is a cemetery in the western portion of Brooklyn, New York City. The cemetery is located between South Slope, Brooklyn, South Slope/Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn, Greenwood Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, Win ...

by real estate developers. Greenwood Heights is a part of Brooklyn Community District 7 along with Windsor Terrace, Sunset Park and South Slope. The much-debated borders are roughly the Prospect Expressway to the north,

Gowanus Canal The Gowanus Canal (originally known as Gowanus Creek) is a canal in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, on the westernmost portion of Long Island. Once a vital cargo transportation hub, the canal has seen decreasing use since the mid-20th ...

and

Upper New York Bay New York Harbor is a bay that covers all of the Upper Bay. It is at the mouth of the Hudson River near the East River tidal estuary on the East Coast of the United States. New York Harbor is generally synonymous with Upper New York Bay ...

to the west, Eighth Avenue to the east, and 39th Street to the south (along the southern boundary of the

and northern boundary of the 36th-38th Street Yard and South Brooklyn Railway). Greenwood Heights, originally considered to be located within South Brooklyn, was incorporated into Sunset Park in the 1960s. A separate designation for the neighborhood was created by the 1980s. Today, Greenwood Heights overlaps with both Sunset Park and South Slope. Greenwood Heights is a mixed neighborhood of

Hispanics The term Hispanic () are people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an ethnic or meta-ethnic term. The term commonly appli ...

, older Polish and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

families, Chinese,

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, and Brooklynites who have relocated from other higher-priced neighborhoods.

History

South Brooklyn was one of the sites of the sprawling Battle of Brooklyn (

Battle of Long Island The Battle of Long Island, also known as the Battle of Brooklyn and the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, was an action of the American Revolutionary War fought on August 27, 1776, at and near the western edge of Long Island in present-day Brooklyn ...

) in August 1776, a pivotal battle in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

to famous residents of

. In the 19th through middle 20th centuries the economy was dominated by the working Brooklyn waterfront. During the mid-20th century, what is now Greenwood Heights was also called Bush Terminal. The name applied to what is now the Industry City complex west of

Third Avenue Third Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, as well as in the center portion of the Bronx. Its southern end is at Astor Place and St. Mark's Place. It transitions into Cooper Square ...

and the

Gowanus Expressway Interstate 278 (I-278) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in New Jersey and New York in the United States. The road runs from US Route 1/9 (US 1/9) in Linden, New Jersey, northeast to the Bruckner Interchange in the New Yor ...

. After the area was designated a "poverty area" in 1966, the area from 36th Street to the Prospect Expressway was incorporated into Sunset Park. As early as the late 1980s, the area was called Greenwood Heights. As the gentrification of South Brooklyn accelerated in the 2000s, the area was increasingly

rebranded Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors ...

as Greenwood Heights, or alternatively as South Slope. Recent new real estate development, curbed with the rezoning of the area in November 2005, has brought an influx of luxury condominium apartments into a residential area that was mainly made up of 1- and 2-family homes. Post-rezoning, while new development sites have occurred, there has been a new trend of home renovations, many of them "gut renovations" but others taking neglected c. 1900 wood-frame houses and restoring them to their historical look.

Architecture

Greenwood Heights' architectural mix of wood frame, vinyl sided and brick homes gives the area an eclectic look and feel, different from its neighbors

Park Slope Park Slope is a neighborhood in South Brooklyn, New York City, within the area once known as South Brooklyn. Park Slope is roughly bounded by Prospect Park (Brooklyn), Prospect Park and Eighth Avenue (Brooklyn), Prospect Park West to the east, ...

to the north and Sunset Park to the south.

Education

The neighborhood is home to several schools. P.S. 172 and P.S. 295 serve elementary school students; M.S. 88 middle schoolers; and the Hellenic Classical Charter School pre-K to 8th grade. In 1995, Al-Noor School, a private school teaching Arabic and Islamic culture was established between 20th and 21st streets on 4th Avenue.

Transportation

The neighborhood is served by the 36th Street, 25th Street, and Prospect Avenue stations on the

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...

's BMT Fourth Avenue Line, served by the . The buses also serve the neighborhood.

References

{{Authority control Neighborhoods in Brooklyn