Midwood is a neighborhood in the south-central part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded on the north by the Bay Ridge Branch tracks just above Avenue I and by the Brooklyn College campus of the City University of New York, and on the south by Avenue P and Kings Highway. The eastern border consists of parts of Nostrand Avenue, Flatbush Avenue, and Coney Island Avenue; parts of McDonald Avenue and Ocean Parkway mark the western boundary.

Midwood is part of Brooklyn Community District 14, and its primary ZIP Codes are 11210 and 11230. It is patrolled by the 70th Precinct of the New York City Police Department. Politically, Midwood is represented by the New York City Council's 44th, 45th, and 48th districts.

History

The name "Midwood" derives from the Middle Dutch Midwout (middle woods; Modern Dutch: Midwoud), the name the settlers of New Netherland called the area of dense woodland midway between the towns of Boswyck (Bushwick) and Breukelen (Brooklyn). Jan Snedeker, Jan Stryker, and Tomys Swartwout solicited from Director-General Stuyvesant the right of settling together on a level area of wilderness (vlacke bosch, the flat bush), adjacent to the outlying farms at Breukelen and Nieuw Amersfoort. Through Swartwout's suggestion, the settlement was named the village of Midwout or Midwolde. In April 1655, Stuyvesant and the Council of New Netherland appointed Swartwout a schepen (magistrate), to serve with Snedeker and Adriaen Hegeman as the Court of Midwout.

Later, it became part of old Flatbush, situated between the towns of Gravesend and Flatlands.BROOKLYN NEIGHBORHOODS.. Present & Past , accessed December 21, 2006

Settlement was begun by the Dutch in 1652; they later gave way to the English, who conquered it in 1664, but the area remained rural and undeveloped for the most part until its annexation to the City of Brooklyn in the 1890s. It became more developed in the 1920s when large middle class housing tracts and apartment buildings were built."FISKE TERRACE-MIDWOOD PARK HISTORIC DISTRICT." Historic Districts Council. Accessed March 21, 2015

Many residents refer to Midwood as "Flatbush", or as being "part of Flatbush", an older and more established neighborhood and former township, which in the 19th century included modern Midwood. The usage of Flatbush to mean Midwood dates to the period when the neighborhood was first formed, and known as South Greenfield.

Many also consider the nearby neighborhood of Fiske Terrace/Midwood Gardens to be part of Midwood, but, as in many cities, neighborhood boundaries in Brooklyn are somewhat fluid and poorly defined.

Demographics Based on data from the 2020 United States Census, the population of Midwood was 52,835. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 73.6% White, 11.8% Asian, 7.6% Hispanic/Latino, 4.6% Black and 2.4% Other. There were 16% of residents over the age of 65.Demographics_by_NTA.pdf (nyc.gov)

The entirety of Community Board 14, which comprises Flatbush and Midwood, had 165,543 inhabitants as of NYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 82.4 years. This is slightly higher than the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. Most inhabitants are middle-aged adults and youth: 25% are between the ages of 0–17, 29% between 25–44, and 24% between 45–64. The ratio of college-aged and elderly residents was lower, at 9% and 13% respectively.

As of 2016, the median household income in Community Board 14 was $56,599. In 2018, an estimated 22% of Flatbush and Midwood residents lived in poverty, compared to 21% in all of Brooklyn and 20% in all of New York City. One in eleven residents (9%) were unemployed, compared to 9% in the rest of both Brooklyn and New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 57% in Flatbush and Midwood, higher than the citywide and boroughwide rates of 52% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation, , Flatbush and Midwood are considered to be high-income relative to the rest of the city and not gentrifying.

Character Shopping The main shopping streets in the area are Kings Highway, Avenue J, Avenue M, Flatbush Avenue, Nostrand Avenue, and Coney Island Avenue.

Kings Highway

In the 1950s through the 1970s, Kings Highway had Dubrow's Cafeteria, a classic cafeteria where holes would be punched in patrons' printed tickets, which would total the cost of the meal. In his run for the White House, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy held a campaign rally just outside Dubrow's Cafeteria. Years later, his brother Senator Robert F. Kennedy ("Bobby") held a similar campaign rally there for his run for President.

In the fall of 2008, the NYCDOT planned to implement an experimental congestion parking plan in the Kings Highway Business District, which would have raised parking meter rates from 75 cents to as much as $2.50 an hour. Specific streets were not then designated.

Kings Highway is currently anchored by several chain stores and multiple ethnic food stores. Unique businesses include several high fashion outlets, jewelry stores, and sushi restaurants.

The first Original Crazy Eddie store was located on Kings Highway, then moved to larger quarters just south of Kings Highway on Coney Island Avenue.

Nostrand Avenue Nostrand Avenue was known for fashionable boutiques and took its place as one of New York's most upscale shopping destinations (even being the cover story of New York Magazine as a secret oasis for fashion). Once a distribution warehouse for a clothing line, Burton's started opening its doors to the public in 1956 for one-off sales events to reduce inventory. Seeing the success of Burtons, Bernie Greenstone and his wife Margarette decided to find a small retail space on the block, located between Avenues M and N to open the soon-to-be famous Children’s clothing store, "Greenstone's" which was first established in 1919 by Margarette's parents until their retirement. Using the same name Greenstone's opened in 1956 and operated at 2750 Nostrand Avenue for 37 years - expanding 3 times. Burtons decided to open 6 days a week (Mon-Sat) and Greenstone's followed suit. Shortly thereafter other stores opened, such as Edna Nelken's Jewelry, The Shirtbox, The Bounty Shop menswear and dozens of other high fashion stores. The block continued to flourish until Burton's - the largest of the stores - closed citing union labor costs. Burton's lay dormant until the Plaza Honda and Oldsmobile showroom opened. This automotive retail entry made parking virtually impossible for customers to find parking spaces and eventually stores closed, and Plaza expanded by taking over virtually all retail space on both sides of the Avenue. Greenstone's closed, but Greenstones et Cie (Greenstones & Co.) still exists on Columbus Avenue and West 82nd Street in Manhattan - counting as one of New York City's longest operating children's clothing stores in New York ... from 1919 until today.

As retailers retired, the street changed and became known for its automobile showrooms. A U.S. Postal Service facility (Zip Code 11210) can be found on Nostrand Avenue between Avenues I and J.

Lettered avenues Avenue J is a major business street in Midwood, with many kosher restaurants, deli, pizzerias, and butchers.

Avenue M, another one of the major business streets of Midwood, is a central location for kosher food and butchers. While in the past it was home to Cookie's, one of Brooklyn's best known restaurants and hang-outs (also popular with the NBC studio staff), today there are no fewer than ten kosher restaurants and three kosher bakeries. From the 1920s through the 1940s, the Dorman Square Restaurant was popular with the Vitagraph studios employees, as well as playing a role in a Vitagraph film or two.

Until the 1970s, Avenue M had its own movie theater. One of Brooklyn's Italian restaurants, Restaurant Bonaparte, also catered to the actors and actresses working on Avenue M in the NBC studios at that time. Restaurant Bonaparte was known for its "Three Musketeers". It also had a wishing well fountain in its lobby entrance, filled with customers' coins. The Avenue has an elevated subway station. Near the end of June each year, the Midwood Development Corporation hosts the popular Midwood Mardi Gras Street Fair along the Avenue, from East 12th Street to Ocean Avenue.

Shoppers can find a municipal muni-meter parking lot on East 17th Street at Chestnut Avenue just north of Avenue M. Many of the retail businesses are closed on Jewish holidays.

Coney Island Avenue On Coney Island Avenue in Midwood, primarily between Avenue H and Avenue P, are the U.S. Postal Service Midwood station (Zip Code 11230), The Kent Triplex Movie Theater, and other retailers.

Between Avenue O and Quentin Road are Turkish restaurants and a hookah bar.

The United States' largest kosher supermarket opened at the corner of Avenue L and Coney Island Avenue in August 2008.

Ocean Parkway

Ocean Parkway is a major tree-lined Brooklyn boulevard, largely featuring apartment houses. It is not a shopping district. Local one-way traffic lanes are separated from the main roadway by bicycle lanes and running paths. Most avenues continue from one side to the other; Avenue K doesn't. Ryder Avenue and Roder do neither: Though they are the same one-way road, their names differ by one letter. Ryder begins at McDonald Avenue, reaches Ocean Parkway, disappears on the opposite for one short block, then continues as Roder, ending at Coney Island Avenue.

Movie theaters Midwood had several movie theaters, now mostly closed:

One, still on Coney Island Ave, near Ave. H, is . It was built in 1939 with a single screen, becoming a triplex in the early 1990s.Article has a clear photo of the entrance. One was on Ave. M, the Century Elm, later an Emigrant Savings Bank branch and now an Apple Bank branch. Four of them were on Kings Highway: The Kingsway The Jewel The Avalon (closed in 1982) The Triangle theatre, which opened in 1936, closed in 1952, subsequently "became a furniture store and by 2019 was a clothing store." It was located across from Sgt. Joyce Kilmer Triangle.

Avalon Theater

The Avalon Theater opened on January 25, 1928, and was located on Kings Highway at the southwest corner of East 18th Street. Originally built by a local Brooklyn company as the Piccadilly, it was sold prior to opening to Loews Theaters, which changed the name to Avalon. Designed by Samuel Cohen, the combined auditoriums (the main or lobby floor and the upstairs or balcony) seated 2,119 which included on the lobby floor a separate seating for children. It also featured a Robert Morton theatre pipe organ. Within a year of opening, it became part of the Century Theatres chain.

The theater closed in 1982, and the building now houses a Walgreens on the ground floor, and offices on the upper floors.

East Midwood

The area east of Ocean Avenue is also known as "East Midwood". The volunteer ambulance service serving Midwood is Flatbush Hatzoloh. The nearest hospitals are Maimonides Midwood Community Hospital (formerly New York Community Hospital) and Mount Sinai Brooklyn, both on Kings Highway. Both are certified "9-1-1 FDNY-EMS" receiving emergency facilities. One of Brooklyn's last remaining farms was located on the site of the apartment complex at 1279 East 17th St. (just north of Ave. M) until it was torn down in the mid-1960s.

Parks Parks include Kolbert Park and the Rachel Haber Cohen Playground and adjacent handball and basketball courts, near Edward R. Murrow High School, and the track and playing fields of Brooklyn College and Midwood High School.

Friends Field at East Second Street and Avenue L features baseball diamonds and tennis courts. Just opposite the field is the Erasmus Hall High School football field (closed to the public when not in use).