The History

Established by Leffert Pietersen van Haughwout in
1660, the area was once a farm on the Dutch settlement
of Midwout, later renamed Flatbush by the British. A
month after the Declaration of Independence was
signed, the Lefferts homestead was burned down by
retreating American soldiers, but it was later rebuilt
and moved into Prospect Park as a museum in 1918.

James Lefferts divided the estate into 600 residential
building lots in 1893, which were developed according
to a land-use covenant that permitted the construction
of only single-family homes and prohibited commercial
use of the property. To uphold the provisions of the
covenant, residents formed the Lefferts Manner
Association in 1919, which in 1979 had the area named
a historic district.

In the Last Fifty Years

Although the streets that divide the historic district
from the rest of the neighborhood show the difference
in care taken inside and outside of the old Lefferts
Manor, the neighborhood as a whole is peaceful and
diverse. In 1968 the Prospect Lefferts-Gardens
Neighborhood Association was founded to make sure real
estate brokers were not trying to create white flight
so the integrated community could be preserved. Much
of the neighborhood is now West Indian and displays of
Caribbean culture can be found in stores, restaurants,
beauty salons, even in architecture and the decoration
of buildings.