By Linda Collins
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

PROSPECT HEIGHTS — The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) Tuesday unanimously approved the designation of the Prospect Heights Historic District.

The 850-building district is the city’s largest since the 2,020-building Upper West Side Historic District was formed in 1990, according to LPC Chair Robert Tierney.

And with its mid-19th century and early 20th century rowhouses and apartment buildings designed in a broad array of architectural styles, it is certainly deserving, he added.

“Prospect Heights is among Brooklyn’s most distinguished, cohesive neighborhoods because of its architectural integrity and diversity, scale, tree-lined streets and residential character,� said Tierney. “These features lend the neighborhood its unique sense of place, making it a natural for historic district status.�

Additionally, the first major battle of the American Revolution, the Battle of Brooklyn, took place in the vicinity of Prospect Heights in August 1776.

As previously reported in the Eagle, the district is situated to the north of Prospect Park and Grand Army Plaza, and is bounded generally by Atlantic Avenue on the north, Eastern Parkway on the south, Flatbush Avenue on the west and Washington Avenue on the east.

Also as previously reported, the Municipal Art Society (MAS) and the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Corp. (PHNDC), led the effort toward historic designation.

The MAS’s Lisa Kersavage told the Eagle last summer she was not aware of any opposition to the designation and credited the “extensive outreach� of the neighborhood group in its door-to-door campaign, scheduling of community meetings and letters.

At the time, residents feared that the neighborhood’s rich historic architecture was threatened by the Atlantic Yards project, a proposal by the developer Forest City Ratner to build 16 towers and a sports arena on a site adjacent to the neighborhood.

The LPC further describes the new historic district as follows:

Prospect Heights started its transformation from farmland and forest into a residential neighborhood in the mid-19th century. Its growth was primarily fueled by transportation improvements and the development of the 585-acre Prospect Park, which was completed in1873.

The earliest structures in the neighborhood are two frame buildings at 578 and 580 Carlton Ave. that appear to date from the 1850s. The first groups of row houses in Prospect Heights date from the 1860s and 1870s, and were designed primarily in the neo-Grec, Italianate, Anglo Italianate or Second Empire styles.

Later row houses, constructed in the 1880s and 1890s, were designed primarily in the Romanesque and Renaissance Revival styles, or combined elements of both.

Several buildings in the district constructed in the early 20th century feature architectural styles that were designed to recall America’s roots at a time of increasing immigration, such as the Colonial Revival style four-story apartment building at 112-114 St. Mark’s Avenue and the Neo-Georgian style six-story multiple dwelling building at 186 Prospect Place.

While dominated by residential buildings, the district includes the following notable institutional buildings: • Romanesque Revival-style Duryea Presbyterian Church, 185 Underhill Ave. at Sterling Place, designed by W.O. Weaver & Son and constructed in 1905;

• The grand imposing P.S. 9 Annex at 251 Sterling Place, constructed in 1885;

• The limestone-faced former Mount Prospect Laboratory at 349-355 Park Place, built by the city in 1938 in the Art Moderne style to serve as its main water testing lab. It is currently used as the Department of Education’s offices of District 13.

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