Many Brooklyn neighborhoods started out being bought by the Dutch, but when it comes to Flatbush, Dutch settlers purchased the land twice.
The Dutch originally acquired the land from the Canarsee people in 1652, but the Eskemoppas Sachem (chief) of the Rockaway (at the time likely pronounced Reckowacky) people proclaimed that Flatbush belonged to them. To avoid conflict, Dutch settlers traded goods for the land a second time.
What are, today, New Lots, East New York and Cypress Hills were once all within Flatbush, but were considered the Ostwout, or east woods.
The arrival of the Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railroad in 1878 made the land attractive to developers and the 1894 incorporation of Flatbush into the City of Brooklyn encouraged even more development. The neighborhood was thus converted from farmland to suburban enclaves.
Suburban developments and older row houses on side streets were left untouched as apartment buildings were built along Ocean Avenue, but between 1920 and 1940, almost all of the other land in Flatbush was filled with large apartment buildings. This new availability of apartments attracted residents, and Flatbush became a busy shopping area.
After World War II, many of the children of original apartment dwellers moved out, and others moved into the neighborhood’s large Victorian homes. Most of the Jewish population was then replaced by immigrants from the Caribbean, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Korea, Central America and Russia.
By the 1980s, one-third of all immigrants in Flatbush were Haitian, and while it took time for peaceful coexistence between neighbors, it was eventually achieved.
