Sunset Park Officially Has Four New Historic Districts, City Says

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — The city has officially designated four new historic districts in Sunset Park, the Landmarks Preservation Commission announced.

The commission, which first started considering the districts in January, named a Sunset Park North, Central Sunset Park, Sunset Park 50th Street and Sunset Park South district on Tuesday, saying that each of the areas exemplify the neighborhood's historical and architectural history.

“I am very excited by the designation of these four historic districts that together tell the story of Sunset Park’s development,” said Landmarks Preservation Commission Chair Sarah Carroll. “The history of Sunset Park is reflected in the architecture and natural topography found in these four historic districts that feature intact rows of buildings that represent the major periods of development in this neighborhood.”

The Sunset Park South Historic District will extend from 54th Street to 59th Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues. It includes 285 buildings, including some of the area's oldest structures in intact rows.

Just a few blocks away, the 50th Street historic district includes two rows of 25 houses found on the street between Fourth and Fifth avenues. These houses were built between 1897 and 1903 when Sunset Park was becoming a working and middle class community, the commission said.

"This section of 50th Street is one of the neighborhood’s finest historic blocks, notable for its cohesive rows of remarkably well-preserved brownstone-fronted houses representing the turn-of-the-century architectural development of Sunset Park," the commission said.

Sunset Park's architecture is characterized by row houses built in the late 19th and early 20th century to house those who worked on its waterfront. The four district have "the most cohesive and intact concentrations" of this architecture, the commission said.

The Central district will include 148 buildings on 47th and 48th streets between Fifth and Sixth avenues and both sides of Sixth Avenue between 47th and 49th streets. The commission said these buildings, built between 1897 and 1906, capture the neighborhood's "outstanding turn-of-the-century residential architecture."

Finally, the North historic district will include 56 buildings on the south side of 44th Street, stretching from Fifth to Seventh avenue. These buildings are notable because of their cohesive rows of limestone and brick-fronted houses that show how the neighborhood's architectural development changed in the beginning of the 20th century.

Advocates said designating the historic districts will help preserve the architecturally-significant buildings, which are threatened to be destroyed as new developers make their way into the neighborhood.

“On many blocks generations of Sunset Parkers have kept their rowhouses intact and looking historic, but that history is being erased by an increase in absentee investors destroying the rowhouse facades," said Lynn Massimo, Project Leader of Sunset Park Landmarks Committee. "That history, which is not only architectural history but is also the history of a proud immigrant and working class community, deserves to be honored and preserved.”