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ownstone Neighborhoods That M ake Brooklyn%u2022orfjoodundingin the ,nge of grape ss and Italianighborto the k from le. Theack to Olmst Park th the smy of i downami liesvB War ctures,is. The today msh to %u2019ark toe new ay as is : Termbusiest chant%u2019s ag with ve the ityS%u2014Millises, ons giveNamedfor DcWitt Clinton, the neighborhood runs from Vanderbilt to Classon Avenues, and from Atlantic Avenue to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, now being redeveloped for private industry. No historic designation has been conferred on the community as yet, but one is pending.Pratt Institute, in the middle of Clinton Hill carries the name of one of the early residents of the area, Charles Pratt of Standard Oil fame. St. Joseph%u2019s College and Kingsborough Community College are also located in the community, which at one time was home to Pfizers and the Underwoods as well as the Pratts.Surrounding Pratt Institute are some neighborhood restaurants, and Myrtle Avenue provides supermarkets and other neighborhood shopping.PARK SLOPEPark Slope is Victorian at its height. Not until the 1880%u2019s did building in the area begin in earnest. Prospect Park had already been laid out and along its western edge mansions cropped up and houses spread down the slope from the park. The closer the park the more lavish the homes.The housing in Park Slope, which extends from Prospect Park West to Fourth Avenue and from Flatbush Avenue north to Prospect Expressway, is mainly Victorian rowhouses with a few earlier framehouses and some mansions all generally built in the late 1800%u2019s or the-tum-of-thcccntury. A portion of the neighborhood from roughly 9th Street to Park Place and from the park to Sixth Avenue was designated as an historic district in 1973. Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Brooklyn Museum as well as the main Grand Army Plaza branch of the Brooklyn Public Library are all within easyproximity,, add richness to the locality.The north part of the Slope came to be called the Gold Coast because of the extravagant homes which made the community one of the most fashionable suburbs of Manhattan in the late 1800%u2019s. In recent years new families have bought and renovated homes but the neighborhood as a whole never deteriorated as dramatically as some other areas.Seventh Avenue in less than a decade has shown a dramatic commercial revitalization and functions today as a vital shopping strip. Fifth Avenue, as well has an increasingly strong merchants association and is working toward its own restoration, as is the portion of Flatbush Avenue along the Slope%u2019s eastern borders.PROSPECT HEIGHTSProspect Heights, made up of the blocks from Eastern Parkway to Atlantic Avenue and from Flatbush to Washington Avenues, literally borders Prospect Park, the Brboklyn Museum, the Botanic Gardens, and the main branch of the library. The neighborhood includes many large apartment buildings with park views as well as row houses, of which the Victorian brownstone predominates.West of Vanderbilt Avenue, most of the homes were constructed in the 1860%u2019s and 1870%u2019s. To the east, rowhouses display more elaborate Victorian detail and were generally built after 1885. Usually lotjg backyards-up to 95 feet-can be found in this neighborhood.Flatbush Avenue, dividing Prospect Heights from Park Slope provides some neighborhood shopping amenities.BEDFORD-STUYVESANTBedford Stuyvesant%u2019s residential development occured from the mid to late1800s to about the 1930s. Bedford Comers, the western section of the neighborhood, was transformed from %u201c a simple forestenvironed cluster of ancient, low-browed Dutch houses, presenting a scene of quiety beauty%u201d %u2014according to historian Stiles, 1884%u2014into rowhousing by speculative builders in the late nineteenth century. Stuyvesant, the western portion of Bedford -Stuyvesant considered the outgrowth of Bedford Corners, did not really begin to be developed until the 1880's.The name Bedford-Stuyvesant was first used in the 1930s during racial tensions in the neighborhood, and first appeared in the Brooklyn Eagle %u2018%u2018when sensational press publicity about a %u2018crime war%u2019 in the %u2018Bedford-Stuyvesant Section%u2019 led to a Kings County Grand Jury investigation... popularizing and at the same time stigmatizing the term ,%u201d according to James P. Hurley, former director of the Long Island Historical Society.Bounded roughly by Atlantic Avenue on the south, Flushing Avenue on the north, Broadway on the east, and Classon Avenue on the west, Bedford-Stuyvesant contains the 13-block Stuyvesant Heights Historic District and the proposed Bedford Corners Historic District. Distinguished churches as well as the old Boys High School on Marcy Avenue, plus stately rowhouses, mansions and other freestanding dwellings are of historic note. The neighborhood, the second largest black enclave in the city, is extremely economically diverse containing both dilapidated and well-preserved housing.Restoration Plaza Shopping Center, developed under the auspices of the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, serves as the main shopping andcultural center.CROWN HEIGHTSCrown Heights, known in the 19th century as Crow Hill, was the home of the first free black community in central Brooklyn, Weeksville which prospered until the 1870%u2019s. The majority of rowhouses now in the neighborhood were built from the tum-of-the-century until the 1920%u2019s. Mansions in the area, most demolished to accommodate later apartment houses, belonged to entrepeneurs of the late 19th century, including Mr. Abraham of Abraham and Straus, and Smith of typewriter fame.A portion of St Marks Avenue when the Abraham mansion once stood and others still stand was know as Millionaires Row, and President Street between New York and Brooklyn Avenues, a block of early 20th century detached homes, has become known as Doctor's Row due to its nearness to Kings County-Brooklyn State Hospital.The boundaries of Crown Heights run roughly from Empire Boulevard to Atlantic Avenue and from Washington to Rochester Avenues. Population and income levels in the neighborhood are extremely diverse.In 1976 the new building for the Brooklyn Children%u2019s Museum was completed on St. Marks Place. The community borders the Botanic Gardens and has easy access to Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Museum, and main Brooklyn library. Utica and Nostrand Avenues traverse the area, and Flatbush abuts it providing more than adequate shopping faciltilies.LEFFERTS GARDENSLeffcrts Gardens, the original site of the 1783 Leffcrts Homestead since re-located to Prospect Park is bounded on the northContinued on P. 37kefs Tight, But Some Neighborhoods Still Cost Lessrationi thatd,ooo.ifr'very mittee it but i f a n d iG c o m -'W n r\\ A! 6th i;| 60th d in t o f d, fo r gtj a n d u d iio n -able Bay Ridge. But brownstones which make up nearly half of the neighborhood are available for under $40,000. Many of these were built before the turn of the century with lots of original detail and often have remained in the same family.BEDFORD STUYVESANTYoung couples are also finding brownstones of exceptional quality in the predominantly black, residential Bedford and Stuyvesant areas between Atlantic, Flushing, Broadway and Classon Avenues, Many homes are owned by residents in this %u2018%u2018stable community%u201d explaines Brenda Fryson, vice president of Brownstones of Bedford Stuyvesant. The neighborhood is highly accessible%u201d Fryson says and houses are sold %u201c at reasonable prices%u201d %u2014in the low $30%u2019s and high $20%u2019s.The neighborhood now boasts a modern shopping center at Restoration Plaza, the Billie Holiday Theater as well as beautifully preserved brownstones in the Stuyvesant Historic District. But Fryson says property values are being kept down by a few strips of abandoned housing at the far reaches of the area and the %u201c negative myths%u201d about Bedford Stuyvesant that need to be dispelled.PROSPECT LEFFERTS GARDENSThe demand for houses in the Prospect Lefferts Gardens area is fat greater than the supply says community organizer Jane Kerina, of the Prospect Lefferts Gardens Neighborhood Association. Thearpo A--J 1__*____ CBouvelard, Clarkson and Ocean and New York Avenues, still has %u201c a large volume of moderately priced housing,%u201d though admits Kerina. There are 30 names on a waiting list for the three-story brownstones, Queen Anne, limestone and brick houses that make up most of this neighborhood.Bernice Sealy, who organizes the twice yearly house tours says that prices range from a low of $35,000 for a house that might need some work to a high of $79,000. Prices might go up if the city%u2019s Landmarks Preservation Commission votes to grant the area Historic Landmark status.BOUNDARIES OF PARK SLOPEPark Slope is one of those areas where houses that look out over Prospect Park can easily pass the $200,000 price tag. But potentially, says Jim Goetz, president of the Park Slope Civic Council, there are houses to be found for less than $60,000. These, however, are certain to need renovation. Houses not needing renovation at an affordable price, real estate brokers say, can still be found between 5th and 6th Avenues, from Park to Berkeley Place.There is, however, a real difference between the prices in the heart of Park Slope and in the South Slope, according to John Mair, first vice president of the Park Slope Civic Council. The South Slope defined as below 9th Street between 5th and 8th Avenues.%u201c Park Slope has a high-priced reputation and many houses in the heart of the Slope are $100,000 and up,%u201d but not too many blocks away homes are in the $40 to $60,000 range, Mair says. Near 5th Avenue, he knows of a number of hnn%u00abes reouirim? major renovations that were purchased recently for a low $20,000.Broker John Noonan of Noonan Real Estate says that below 7th Street most houses are valued from the mid $40%u2019s up to $60,000.Houses on the Park blocks from 10th through 14th Street are in the $100,000 range however. Brownstones and three story Victorian brick buildings make up most of the South Slope but about one quarter of the buildings are frame, and there are some apartment buildings.VINEGAR HILLPrices are markedly lower in Vinegar Hill located between the Farragut Housing Development and the East River, next to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Bob Strong of the Vinegar Hill Association says that he paid $15,000 for his own house but was recently offered $60,000 for it and predicts a sharp escalation in price in the future. Strong says two in his area were sold during the summer for figures in the mid $20%u2019s. He characterizes Vinegar Hill as quiet and safe, half it are factory or commercial, properties. Many ethnic groups with a large colony of artists make up its residents, many of whom don%u2019t bother locking the front door, Strong says.FORT GREENEFort Greene, parts of which recently were declared a landmark area, has some of the most spectacular brownstones in Brooklyn. But Tom Kennedy, president of the Fort Greene Landmarks Committee reports that bargains can still be found in home purchases. Most brownstones in this area situated between Myrtle, Atlantic, Vanderbilt Avenues and Fort Greene *Park are four story, one or two family homes in a%u2022 * * * * - ~*%u2014 * %u00ab J neignuornuuu %u00bb%u00bb%u2022%u00ab.%u00ab.black and white homeowners.Realtor Bill Harris, of Renaissance Properties, says that prices range from $40,000 all the way up to $120,000. Fort Greene prices arenot changing much, he says, but ever since parts of it were declared landmark areas, banks have been more generous with loans, making it easier to get mortgages.NAVY HILLTo the North of Fort Greene is Navy Hill, bounded by Myrtle Avenue and the industries located adjacent to the old Brooklyn Navy Yard. Roy Vanasco, chairman of the Myrtle Avenue Merchants Association and born and bred in Navy Hill, says that his part of Brooklyn is up and coming, and that the owner-residents are responsible for the change. Vanasco says that recently he has seeh abandoned buildings being re-occupied and new shops springing up on Myrtle Avenue%u2019s shopping strip. When a house is on the sale block, Vanasco says, word of it by mouth spreads and prices recently have soared. The majority of the houses are mid 19th century brownstones and can be had for below $60,000.WINDSOR TERRACEWindsor Terrace is a small quiet neighborhood between Prospect Park West and Caton Avenue and Greenwood Cemetery and the Park. Bill Staub of the Windsor Terrace Community Council agrees with real estate salesperson, Rita Noonan, that prices are rising. But in this largely middle class residential neighborhood prices range from $75 to $95,000. %u201cThe market is tight in all the brownstone neighborhoods,%u201d Noonan explains, and the Terrace is feeling the squeeze. Half of the neighborhood housing stock is made up of brick row houses, one third brownstone, some limestone and pre-Civil War frame homes. Staub characterizes the area as %u201c fairly stable%u201d but said that some abandoned buildings areavailable on the fringes of the Terrace.PROSPECT HEIGHTSProspect Heights is a neighborhood where a lot of young couples are buying houses. Roughly half the houses in this residential section between Flatbush Avenue, Grand Army Plaza and Washington Avenue are three and four story brownstones built in the late 19th century. Carol Cherry, one of the Directors of the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Corporation describes the neighborhood as an integrated area where there has been an %u201c influx of whites into a predominantly black neighborhood.%u201d Richard Lazarus, a realtor in the area, says that houses are being sold from a high of $125,000 for a fully renovated brownstone to a low of $35,000 for one where a moderate amount of renovation is necessary.CROWN HEIGHTSCrown Heights was built around 1910 to 1925 and so houses of limestone and brick predominate says resident Tupper Thomas of the Crown Heights Maintenance and Management Corporation. There are also some six to eight story apartment buildings in the area bounded by Atlantic Avenue and Empire Boulevard and Washington and Ralph Avenues.There are still single family brick dwellings with a garage in the back being sold for $35,000, on the tree lined Crown and Carroll Streets only a short distance from the Botanic Garden and Brooklyn Museum.