the litchfield villa, built in the 1850's in what is now the western edge of prospect park. mr. litchfield owned much of what is now park slope.

History

Park Slope contains Brooklyn’s largest historic district, with some of the nation’s best examples of late 19^th century Romanesque Revival, Queen Anne, and Renaissance Revival style brownstone rowhouses. The impetus for the development of Park Slope, then referred to as Prospect Hill, was the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883. Most of the neighborhood was developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as a commuter suburb of Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn. One of the defining features of the neighborhood that attracted residents was Prospect Park, which borders the neighborhood on its eastern edge. The Park was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux, the designers of Manhattan’s Central Park and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, and it contains some of the City’s most beautiful open meadows, forests, and undulating hills. Although the neighborhood declined after World War II, by the late 1970’s new residents were moving in, and restoring much of the historic character and original charm to the neighborhood.