Borough Park, Brooklyn

Borough Park (also spelled Boro Park) is a neighborhood in the southwestern part of the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City in the United States; Borough Park covers an extensive grid of streets between Bensonhurst to the south, Bay Ridge to the southwest, Sunset Park to the west, Kensington to the northeast, Flatbush to the east, and Midwood to the southeast.

Borough Park is home to one of the largest Orthodox Jewish communities outside of Israel, with one of the largest concentrations of Jews in the United States, and Orthodox traditions rivaling many insular communities. As the average number of children in Hasidic and Hareidi families is 6.72, Borough Park is experiencing sharp growth in population. It is an economically diverse neighborhood.

History

Early development and railroads

Originally, it was Blythebourne, a small hamlet composed of cottages built and developed in 1887 by Electus Litchfield, and then expanded with more housing by developer William Reynolds. It was served by the Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island, a steam railroad that is today's elevated BMT West End Line; the line ran from Greenwood Cemetery to Coney Island when it was built in the 1860s. This line was put on an elevated structure in 1917.