Historic Neighborhoods of Brooklyn - Edwin C. Litchfield Land

The Edwin C. Litchfield of Brooklyn, NY purchased a full one third of all the land between the canal and what is now Prospect Park. The Office of the Brooklyn Improvement Company, 360 Third Avenue (aka 370 Third Avenue, 230 Third Street), Brooklyn (New York and Long Island Coignet Stone Company Building) was built in 1872-73. In 1882 the factory closed and up until 1957 it housed the offices of Edwin Clark Litchfield’s Brooklyn Improvement Company. The Company owned the site located at Third Street and Third Avenue, Brooklyn. Brooklyn Improvement Company was founded by Litchfield for the express purpose of dredging the Gowanus Creek, then a fresh stream, and making it ship worthy, and renamed the Gowanus Canal. Litchfield planned to develop the low-lying swampland near the Gowanus Canal for industry, while selling off the fertile uplands of the old Vechte-Cortelyou House farm as mansions for the city's elite.

Litchfield created a wide carriageway between his Brooklyn Improvement office and his Litchfield Villa mansion at the top of the slope, which is now Third Street. This street is wider than any of the other streets subsequently. Litchfield Villa at 95 Prospect Park West Brooklyn, NY 11215-3709 was originally built as a home for the Litchfield family in 1857. Edwin Litchfield, a railroad tycoon and real estate developer, procured nearly a square mile of meadow and swampland for his estate in 1852, which expanded down to the Gowanus Canal. The Villa was named Grace Hill for his wife, Grace Hill Hubbard. This was a hilly reserve balanced on the edge of the glacial moraine that runs down the spine of Long Island and through the center of Brooklyn. In 1868 Litchfield was forced to sell his land to the Brooklyn Parks Commission because Olmsted and Vaux’s design for the new Prospect Park included Grace Hill and its surrounding property. After Litchfield’s death in 1885 the Villa was taken over by park administrative offices and park police. It now is the Brooklyn headquarters of the NYC Department of Parks and offices of the Prospect Park Alliance. Litchfield Villa was designated a New York City Landmark in 1966.

The house is excellent example of the Italianate Villa style, with an asymmetrical and picturesque design composed of square towers of varying heights, corner turret, wraparound porch, and a mixture of flat and sloped roofs. The building has four stories in the main entrance tower and has a full basement. There are many wooden balconies, and roof decks and the towers are wrapped in decorative wood railings. Skylights occur throughout the roof area, and the top floor contains a plaster domed ceiling. The exterior was originally finished in stucco decorated to mimic stone.

The inside contains extremely decorative wood moldings and plaster walls and ceilings. The entrance hall opens into an octagonal rotunda, with a double staircase to the second floor. A skylight tops the rotunda space. Every chief space opens from this rotunda, with staircases in the towers to the higher floors. The colorful floral decorative glass bordering a number of the upper story windows are rare surviving examples of pre-Civil War American-made stained glass. The core was completely transformed to office space, so that little of the original furnishings or finishes remain.

In the historical rocky hills behind the Litchfield property he purchased for his mansion, the Battle of Brooklyn, a major Revolutionary War battle was fought. George Washington, shocked by Redcoats marching in through undefended Jamaica Pass to the east, scarcely managed to escape across the East River with his troops. The 1699 Vechte-Cortelyou House Dutch farmhouse is known as the Old Stone House. It was central to the Battle of Brooklyn, and is now a museum and community resource that explores the American Revolution, colonial life and Brooklyn. The house was rented to an Isaac Cortelyou, and his father, Jacques, bought the property in 1790. Old Vechte-Cortelyou House farm played an essential role in the American Revolution. On August 27, 1776, during the Battle of Brooklyn, things looked ominous to be sure for the Americans, as George Washington watched. 900 American troops retreated from what would become the Greenwood Cemetery area. 259 of the Maryland troops were killed, and a Maryland flag still graces the restored farmhouse. A thousand revolutionaries were killed, another thousand were captured and sent to suffer on the prison ship Jersey. Greater New York remained in Tory hands for the rest of the Revolutionary War. There is a monument to those who gave their lives located in Prospect Park. The house continued on with the Cortelyou family until 1850 when it was sold to Edwin Litchfield