Crown Heights North Historic District, National historic district in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, United States.
Crown Heights North Historic District covers 1,019 contributing buildings in a mostly residential section of Brooklyn, built largely between 1853 and 1942. Its densely built blocks hold rowhouses, townhouses, two-family and semi-attached houses, freestanding houses, flats, apartment buildings, and institutional and commercial structures. The styles range from Greek Revival and Gothic Revival to Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne, Romanesque and Renaissance Revival, Beaux-Arts, and Colonial Revival.
The area was originally farmland until 1854 when the Lefferts family offered land for sale, marking the start of the settlement called Bedford. This triggered the gradual transformation that shaped the neighborhood into what it is today.
The district's name comes from Crown Heights, the Brooklyn neighborhood it occupies. Its blocks mix rowhouses with churches and institutions, among them the former Union League Club Building (c. 1889), Union United Methodist Church (1889–1891), Bedford Central Presbyterian Church (1897, 1906) and St. Gregory the Great Roman Catholic Church (1915–1916). The National Register listed the district in 2014.
The area stretches between Atlantic Avenue and Eastern Parkway and is easy to explore on foot since most historic buildings are visible from public sidewalks. Plan time for a slow walk so you can observe the details of individual buildings.
The neighborhood is connected to the history of Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman elected to Congress. Her former home and other places linked to her life were included when the protected area was expanded in 2016.
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