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Please add profiles of people who were born, lived or died in (or were notable for their ties to) Ditmas Park, Brooklyn.
Ditmas Park is a historic district in the neighborhood of Flatbush in Brooklyn, New York City. The traditional boundaries of Ditmas Park, including Ditmas Park West, are Ocean Avenue and greater Flatbush to the east, Dorchester Road and the Prospect Park South neighborhood to the north, Coney Island Avenue and the Kensington neighborhood to the west, and Newkirk Avenue to the south. The name Ditmas Park is often used as a shorthand for the several neighborhoods that comprise the larger area of Victorian Flatbush.
Ditmas Park is patrolled by the New York City Police Department's 70th Precinct, and is within Brooklyn Community District 14. The New York City Subway's B and Q trains serve Ditmas Park.
The neighborhood is located on land formerly owned by the Ditmas family. The area remained rural until the 1890s. At that time, Brooklyn was becoming more popular, due to the development of Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Bridge, along with improved transportation in New York City. Lewis H. Pounds was one of the early developers of the area now known as Ditmas Park Historic District. This eight-block national historic district consists of 2,000 to 2,500 largely residential buildings built between 1902 and 1914. Many of the buildings are large, free-standing, single-family homes with gables and front porches. Most of the building architects were local to the Flatbush or Brooklyn area, and they specialized in suburban buildings. Architectural styles of the area's buildings include Colonial Revival, Bungalow/Craftsman, Queen Anne, Tudor, Greek Revival, and Japanese Cottage. These styles are uncommon in Brooklyn, where brownstones and rowhouses are typical. The district also includes apartment buildings, a commercial district along Cortelyou Road, and one church, the brick Neo-Georgian Flatbush-Tompkins Congregational Church (1910) at which Conrad Tillard is since 2018 the Senior Minister.
Notable people with ties to Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, from Wikipedia:
- Aaron Dessner (born 1976), of The National
- Bryce Dessner (born 1976), composer and guitarist
- Ric Menello (1952-2013), screenwriter and director, co-directed the Beastie Boys' music videos "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)" and "No Sleep till Brooklyn"
- Roy Nathanson (born 1951), saxophonist, composer, bandleader who became the leader and principal composer of the Jazz Passengers
- Tim O'Brien (born 1964), illustrator
- Ben Smith, former editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed
- Sonja Sohn (born 1964), actress
- Sufjan Stevens (born 1975), singer-songwriter
- Michelle Williams (born 1980), actress