Borough and State: Brooklyn, New York
Listed: 1983
Type of district: National Register historic district, state historic district, local historic district
Main Intersection: Ditmas Avenue and East 18th Streets
Ditmas Park National Register Historic District Report
Ditmas Park National Register Historic District Map
Located within Flatbush, the creation of the Ditmas Park community can be traced back to 1902 and real estate broker Lewis H. Pounds, who purchased a large plot of land that had been the eastern part of a farm owned by the Van Ditmarsen family. It is from Van Ditmarsen that Ditmas Park takes its name. He divided the area into building lots, and he and his partner, Delbert Decker, built houses on some of them while selling other lots to independent builders and prospective owners. All of the building was governed by a series of restrictions that guaranteed the quality of construction and sought to give the development a distinctly suburban effect. The buildings all had to be one-family residences and maintain a certain character. Pounds and his partner also set standards for landscaping.
Most of the homes in Ditmas Park are freestanding, frame, two-story residential structures with attics. The façades generally feature clapboards, shingles or a combination of the two. The most commonly used design style in the community is the Colonial Revival style. The houses are frequently asymmetrical with interesting and unexpected architectural details. Almost all of them have columnar porches that occasionally wrap around the sides of the house. Projecting bays, oriels, and towers frequently add to the design. While the Colonial Revival was the preferred style of house in Ditmas Park, it was not the only style favored by architects who worked in the area. Ditmas Park contains a number of Tudor Revival designs and bungalows.