Crown Heights is now an established and distinct neighborhood, but internal geographical boundaries persist. Residents and visitors construct their own ideas of community and neighborhood in Crown Heights. Each of these mini-neighborhoods has a different approach to history and memory. While this list is not meant to be definitive and relies upon disputed borders, it provides a starting ground from which to assess the role of the past in present day Crown Heights community formation. It also serves as geographic tool for understanding the digital map on this website.
Crown Heights North
The part of Crown Heights that is north of Eastern Parkway was one of the last to be incorporated into the neighborhood and until the 1930s it was thought of as part of Bedford. Furthermore, the point at which Crown Heights becomes Bedford-Stuyvesant has often been disputed but is generally assumed to today lie at Atlantic Avenue.
Crown Heights North is where some of the oldest remaining structures in the neighborhood can be found. These include the Dean Sage House, the Elkins House, and the William Eggert Mansion. At the same time former sites such as St. John’s Home for Boys and the Brooklyn Orphan Asylum hint at the history that has been lost.
Crown Heights North is also where the municipal forms of collective memory are strongest and this is illustrated in the number of co-named streets in the area. Reflecting the African-American and Caribbean population, these names are often named after local or national black figures.
Crown Heights East (Weeksville)
Until the 1960s the history of Weeksville was buried beneath the new architecture of Crown Heights, and forgotten in the public memory of the neighborhood. The pioneering work of Joan Maynard and the Weeksville Society did much to change this and today the eastern part of Crown Heights is steeped in its unique history.
The collective memory of Weeksville is primarily held by the Weeksville Heritage Center but there are a number of other ways the community’s history is reflected in the local area. These include Weeksville School and Weeksville Garden Houses, as well as the Time Train mural in Kingsborough Houses. Furthermore the Berean Baptist Church still offers services in the local area.
Crown Heights South
A sign displaying the face of Menachem Mendel Schneerson in Crown Heights South (Public domain).
Since the 1950s, Crown Heights South has been viewed as synonymous with the Lubavitch Jewish community. Lubavitch Jews comprise about 20% of the population of Crown Heights south of Eastern Parkway and between Nostrand Avenue and Rochester Avenue, but around 40% of the population between New York Avenue and Troy Avenue.
The Lubavitch community is centered on 770 Eastern Parkway, the headquarters of the global Chabad movement. Beyond this there are few notable landmarks or aspects of memorial culture, the one exception being a mosaic mural dedicated to Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson. The presence of history in Lubavtich Crown Heights is largely limited to posters and flags that display the face of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh and final Chabad Rebbe. However, these posters are as much about the future as they are about the past. The images of the Rebbe are often accompanied by phrases such as “Let’s Welcome Moshiach”; this reflects both the belief that the messianic era is imminent, but also the prominent strain of Lubavtich Jews who believe that the Rebbe himself was the Messiah.
Crown Heights West
Crown Heights West corresponds to the area defined by the 1939 WPA Guide to New York as Bedford. Bedford was a historic village to the north of Crown Heights but was at times a catch-all term for the area north of Flatbush. The WPA listed Bedford as the area of Crown Heights west of Nostrand Avenue. The guide wrote that in the “mauve decade” the area had been fashionable but that in the late 1930s “few traces of its past elegance survive.”[1] Today Crown Heights West borders both Prospect Park and Prospect Heights, although the border with Prospect Heights remains disputed.
The western part of Crown Heights is where the most traditional memorial landscape of the neighborhood can be found. This includes the General Grant statue on Grant Square, as well as the former site of the General Slocum statue – itself now located on Grand Army Plaza. The area is also home to the 23rd Regiment Armory, one of the architecturally oldest and most recognizable buildings in Crown Heights.
The legacy of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Ebbets Field is also reflected in Crown Heights West. Ebbets Field Houses holds the legacy of the stadium’s name but there are several memorial murals in close proximity, as well as a playground named after Jackie Robinson.
[1] Federal Writers’ Project, The WPA guide to New York City: the Federal Writers’ Project guide to 1930s New York (New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1982), 476