On This Day in History, March 15: Five Landmarks in One Day

March 15, 2012 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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On March 15, 1966, no less than five landmarks were designated in Brooklyn:

• The Brooklyn Museum at Eastern Parkway and Washington Avenue. It was designed in the 1890s in a grandiose neo-Classical style by McKim, Mead & White. Among the facade’s outstanding features are 28 heroic-size figures on the cornice.

Erasmus Hall Academy

• Erasmus Hall Academy in the courtyard of Erasmus Hall High School, 911 Flatbush Ave., near Church Avenue. A large clapboard building that dates back to 1786, making it one of the oldest school buildings in the country.

Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church

• Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church, 890 Flatbush Ave. at Church Avenue. Built of local stone and Holland brick, the walls of this noteworthy 1799 Georgian structure rest on earlier foundations; this is the third church built on the same site since 1654.

Litchfield Villa

• Litchfield Villa, Prospect Park West between 4th and 5th streets. This rural Italianate mansion, designed by architect Alexander Jackson Davis, is one of the country’s finest mid-19th century examples of a residence for the wealthy.

• New Utrecht Reformed Church, 18th Avenue and 83rd Street. Though essentially continuing 18th century traditions, the 1828 design of this fieldstone church foreshadowed elements of the Gothic Revival style. It was built of stone reused from the 1699 church it replaced.