Books, Newspapers & Other Documents

Books, newspapers, historic designation reports, and other documents that cover Flatbush history.

Of all of the hodge-podge lists on this site, this one might be the strangest: the list of books about Flatbush. There are a couple of solid contemporary histories, but the most seminal books about Flatbush were written before the 1900s by Dutch people lamenting their idyllic village turning into a suburb. These can be fun to read, but they’re full of white patriarchal supremacy. That’s why one of my favorite places to do Brooklyn research is via newspapers — there are many from New York City that you can search online. I’ve also included links to the historic designation reports for districts and landmarks in the Flatbush area and a handful of other research materials. Do you know of something that’s missing from this list? Let me know.

Modern Books (post-1950) about Flatbush History

These books look back on Flatbush history from a modern-day viewpoint.

Flatbush: A Neighborhood History Guide by Adina Black and Francis Monroe (2008) - If you’re looking for a place to start, this book is it. This comprehensive yet concise book published by the Brooklyn Historical Society covers Flatbush history from the native peoples to the 2000s and includes fantastic photos from the Historic Society’s collection throughout. It also contains 3 self-guided walking tours through each of Victorian Flatbush’s historic districts at the end. Perhaps because it’s missing an ISBN, this book is hard to find online, but they usually have several copies in stock at the Greenlight Bookstore in Prospect Lefferts Gardens as well as at the giftshop of the Historical Society.

Flatbush: The Heart of Brooklyn by Nedda C. Allbray (2004) - This meticulously researched history pulls together information from more than 30 books and other sources, connecting the dots to present an extremely thorough (if occasionally dry) history of Flatbush.

Oscar Israelowitz’s Flatbush Guide (1990) - This tiny book can be hard to find but is worth it for its helpful history of Jewish settlement in Flatbush and histories of Jewish buildings of note. It also lists general Flatbush areas of interest—sometimes it reports legends as facts (Mary Pickford never lived in Flatbush!) but it’s very thorough.

East of Flatbush, North of Love: An Ethnography of Home by Danielle Brown, Ph.D. (2015) - There’s lots to love in this delightful and informative look into the life of a second-generation Trini girl growing up in East Flatbush. If you have a similar background to Brown, this book will be full of nostalgia. If not, you’ll get personal insight into the lives of your neighbors, including their history, food, culture, and even slang. But maybe the best thing is that Brown gives “musical cues” for what music to play while you’re reading to get the full experience.

Flatbush Odyssey: A Journey Through the Heart of Brooklyn by Allen Abel (1995) - In the mid-nineteenth century, Europeans would go to Africa and write these completely demeaning travel logs about their “discoveries.” This book is kinda the 90s version of that, when an Irish guy who grew up in Flatbush in the 60s takes a long walk down Flatbush Ave in the 90s. As cringey as I found some parts, it is well-researched and the author/narrator is more likeable than I want to admit.

Magic Carpet: Aleppo-in-Flatbush: The Story of A Unique Ethnic Jewish Community by Joseph A.D. Sutton (1979) - This extremely dense book has almost 150 pages of history and information about the Flatbush Syrian Jewish community before it goes in-depth on the history in the homeland.

Spaces of Enslavement: A History of Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York by Andrea C. Mosterman (2021) - Examining how people lived through the lens of the spaces they inhabited is an especially fitting way to understand those who lived through slavery in Flatbush. Mosterman gives incredible insight into New York as a whole and also includes research specific to the how enslaved people worshiped at the Dutch Reformed Church of Flatbush.

Historical Books (published before 1950) about Flatbush

These books show what it was like in Flatbush when they were written, while also offering history up until that point. Most are available online in digital form.

The History of the Town of Flatbush by Dr. Reverend Thomas M. Strong (1842) - A thorough history of Flatbush up until that time period, with a heavy emphasis on the beginnings of the Dutch Reformed Church and Erasmus Hall. This book drags a little until it gets to the crazy-super-fascinating chapter on The Revolutionary War, the Battle of Brooklyn, and the occupation of Flatbush by the British. Strong was able to track down first-hand sources who were still living at the time.

The Genealogy of the Lefferts Family, 1650–1878 by Teunis C. Bergen (1878) - A historian, mapmaker, and all-around smart guy, Bergen traces the history of one of Flatbush’s earliest families from the time Flatbush was colonized by the Dutch. Lots of random Flatbush tidbits.

The Social History of Flatbush: And Manners and Customs of the Dutch Settlers in Kings County by Gertrude Lefferts Vanderbilt (1881) - The Flatbush history book to end all Flatbush history books, this vintage volume was penned by a woman who could probably trace her ancestry to every Dutch family in old Flatbush. Written right as Flatbush began to change from a Dutch farming village to a nouveau riche suburb, Vanderbilt created it as a record of the old Dutch customs and way of life. It functions exactly as it was intended, giving a vivid descriptions of:

Dutch houses, furniture, dress, eating habits, and other customs
The lives of Black Flatbush residents who were servants or enslaved (as seen through the lens of a complicit white woman with racism typical of the time)
The land itself, including trees and flowers.
Old Dutch families (Ditmas, Lott, Lefferts, Vanderbilt, Vanderveer, and some others) and their histories
General history from the time of the native peoples to what was her present day.

A Historical Sketch of the Zabriske Homestead, Flatbush, LI by Peter Shneck (1881) - Published the same year as Vanderbilt’s opus, this book focuses more specifically on one Flatbush family, the Zabriskes and their ancestors (including the Lotts and the Lloyds). However, since they lived at the corner of Flatbush and Church Avenues for more than a generation, their story intersects heavily with Dutch Flatbush.

Flatbvsh: Past and Present by Edmund Drew Fisher (1901) - You know this book created for the Flatbush Trust Company is “fancy,” because it uses a V instead of a U (basically the equivalent of using a script font today). This book mostly regurgitates info and photos from other books, but it does a good job of it, and has some lovely illustrations throughout, as well as a handy timeline in the back.

The Realm of Light and Air: Flatbush, an Ideal Homeland (1905) - This elongated pamphlet by the All Soul’s Church is basically an ad for how great White Flatbush is. It also contains lots of images from the time period of new Victorian Flatbush mansions, and some fun real estate ads.

Historic Homesteads of Kings County, Long Island by Charles Andrew Ditmas (1908) - A son of Flatbush goes super in-depth on a couple dozen legendary landowners from Flatbush, Flatlands, New Utrecht, and Gravesend, including detail genealogies and, when known, their role in the Revolutionary War (the ultimate Dutch Flatbush status symbol).

Flatbush of Today by Herbert Foster Gunnison (1908) - A thorough look at white Flatbush in 1908. This book seems like it was written to sell new Flatbush houses, and is a thorough time capsule of the time. Its history portion is pulled from earlier books like Vanderbilt’s and Strong’s histories, and it has few original photos. But it does have lengthy descriptions of schools, churches, and civic organizations of the town as well as biographies of the architects, developers, and original (male) owners of Victorian Flatbush homes.

Keskachauge or The First White Settlement on Long Island by Frederick Van Wyck (1924) - Contrary to what its subtitle says, this extremely detailed book of almost 800 pages traces the history of Native American settlements throughout Brooklyn. It contains detailed info about Penhawitz, a tribal leader in the Flatlands, talks about which tribes lived where, and gives meticulous histories of how the original white settlements in Brooklyn were formed, including Flatbush. Unsurprising for the time, it doesn’t give an accurate view of native life or the deals that colonists made to “buy” the land, but it’s an impressive historical document.

Old Dutch Houses of Brooklyn by Maud Esther Dillard (1945) - Chapter 4 covers the Flatbush homesteads of numerous Dutch settlers in detail.

Tales of Old Flatbush by John Snyder (1945) - This book, written by a Flatbush resident and grandson of one of the old Dutch families, is out of print, but an interesting read if you can get your hands on it. (The central Brooklyn Public Library and the Brooklyn Historical Society have copies you can read on-site.) It contains dozens of stories — some unsourced and many not seen elsewhere — about Flatbush before the turn of the century.

Historical Archives

New York State Archives - A small but interesting selection of land grants and other early documents concerning Flatbush

National Archives’ Founders Online - Basically like reading the text messages of the founding fathers as they updated each other on how the Revolutionary War. General George Washington mentions “Flat Bush” in several of them.

Columbia University New York Real Estate Brochure Collection - brochures advertising many of Flatbush’s apartment buildings that were built in the 1920s–50s. If you live in a characteristic “big building” in Flatbush, you may be able to find photos, floor plans, and other info about your building when it was first built.

NYC Dept of Buildings Building Info System - Enter an NYC address in line 1 of this form to get some interesting results. For many addresses, data is missing (and occasionally inaccurate) but you’re often able to download certificates of occupancy for a building, which can give you some strong indications of when it was probably first inhabited or changed uses (e.g. from a house into apartments).

A Brief Guide to Researching the History of Your NYC Home - This guide (rather comprehensive and not “brief”-seeming at all!) from the New York Public Library gives links to NYC databases to answer the most commonly asked questions about a home like “when was it built?” and “who lived here?”

Brooklyn College Archives & Special Collections - Photos and documents relating to Brooklyn College and its surrounding neighborhood, including former uses of the land where it now stands

Documents relating to the Flatbush African Burial Ground - Scroll to the bottom of this page for a list of city-funded reports regarding archeological, genealogical, and other studies of the Flatbush African Burial Ground site

The Brooklyn Historical Society Library - Is there anything more incredible than a library? The Brooklyn Historical Society Library lets anyone just walk in off the street (as long as you don’t bring food or drink) and take a look at historic books, maps, and even old papers like letters. (For the papers, just reserve in advance.)

The New-York Historical Society Library - Same goes for the library of the New-York Historical Society.

NYC Historic District & Landmark Designation Reports

These meticulously researched histories were prepared by neighbors in order to get official NYC historic district status for areas in Flatbush. They contain historic information about the district or landmark as a whole as well as each individual structure inside the designated boundaries.

Newspapers, 1850s–present

If you’re looking up a particular Flatbush person or event from history, you can find original source material in the form of newspaper articles that were written back in the day.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle and others - You can search the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and other Kings County newspapers from 1841 to 1963 for free through the Brooklyn Public Library’s Newspapers.com portal. Note: make sure you’re accessing Newspapers.com through the BPL (follow the link above), otherwise, you’ll need a subscription.

Newpapers.com - With a full Newspapers.com subscription (about $12–$15 a month), you can search more than a dozen historic Brooklyn newspapers, including two specific to Flatbush (The Flatbush Times 1952–1959 and The Flatbush Weekly News 1904–1905). Feels kinda like googling the past.

The New York Times’ Times Machine - If you subscribe to the NYT, you can access their full database of articles from the 1850s onward.

Flatbush Jewish Journal - A conservative, Orthodox Jewish paper

The Forward - The oldest Jewish newspaper in New York covers Flatbush news relevant to the Jewish community

Caribbean Life - Brooklyn news through a Caribbean lens

Bklyner - This independent newspaper and website looks at Brooklyn news on the neighborhood level. It also houses the archives of the now-closed site Ditmas Park Corner.

More historic NYC newspapers (NYPL microfilm) - If you wanna get truly old school, the New York Public Library has a treasure-trove of old newspapers on microfilm, and as a bonus, you get to sit in the beautiful Rose Reading Room while you’re looking at them. You can also access the digital archives of the New York Herald-Tribune (1841–1962) from any computer while you’re on-site.

Other Research Materials