Prospect Park South, Brooklyn
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Prospect Park South is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, within the community of Flatbush. It is bordered by Caton Avenue to the north, the BMT Brighton Line of the New York Subway to the east, Beverley Road (sometimes spelled Beverly) to the south, and between Stratford Road and Coney Island Avenue to the west.
Prospect Park South was developed at the end of the 19th century by visionary developer Dean Alvord as a community of large, individually-designed homes. Its motto was rus in urb (country in the city). It was built to take advantage of the train service on the BMT Brighton Line of the New York City Subway that connected the community with Manhattan, near City Hall, at the western end of the Brooklyn Bridge.
A number of the homes in the community are considered mansions, telling of a historical period of wealth and prominent individuals of means. The nearby Alvord Mansion, built by the developer of Prospect Park South for his own family, and later the home of the Matz family, the founders of the Ex-lax Company, located on the south side of Albemarle Road bordering on the railway, was abandoned and then torn down after a fire in 1955. This followed a zoning battle in which the Matz family heirs sold the one-acre property to an apartment house developer and the neighborhood association successfully defeated the proposal to build in violation of zoning laws. The property remains vacant to this day. Prospect Park South was designated as a historic district by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1979.
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