History of Prospect Lefferts Gardens — 125 Maple Street
Prospect Lefferts Gardens and the Lefferts name trace their origins all the way back to the original Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam. 16-year-old Leffert Pieterse arrived with his family from Amsterdam in 1660 and settled in the newly created village of Midwout, an outpost recently created by Peter Stuyvesant on Lange Eylandt. (Midwout would become Flatbush once the British took over, and the dense woodland area around the village became Midwood.) He seems to have been a busy man… By the 1680’s, young Leffert had amassed land holdings in Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens, New Jersey and sired 14 children – starting a family dynasty that lasts until this day. Lefferts Pieterse eventually moved to the Bedford area leaving the family homestead to his son Pieter Lefferts (the Lefferts took on the Anglicized practice of putting their surnames in the second position after the British firmly established their hold on the colonies.) The house stood at what is now the intersection of Flatbush & M
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