In 1899 developer Dean Alvord purchased about 60 acres (24 ha) of farmland in order to create Prospect Park South, a community of substantial homes, a "rural park within the limitations of the conventional city block and city street."^[2] Alvord characterized the development as rus in urbe, the country in the city.^[5][6] The location was selected to take advantage of the train service on the Brooklyn and Brighton Beach Railroad of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT). The line, now known as the BMT Brighton Line, offered express and local train service that remains to this day. The trains emerged at Fulton Street as an elevated line and continued across the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan.^[7]

 

Gatepost at Church Avenue & Buckingham Road. Gateposts such as this mark many of the entrances to streets in the historic district.

Once he had purchased the land, Alvord laid out all the necessary utilities and marked the entrance of most streets with brick piers with cast concrete plaques bearing the bas-relief inscription "PPS". He also hired John Aitkin, a Scottish landscape gardener, to supervise the plantings for the lawns and the Flatbush Malls, with meticulous attention given to details. Trees, for instance, were not planted only along the curb line, but also at the building line as well, to give the streets greater breadth of vision, to block out adjoining houses, and provide the illusion that each house was the only one on the block. Both Norway maples and Carolina poplars were used: the poplars for immediate shade, and the slower-growing maples for long-term shade. Alvord did all this before selling a single plot.^[2][6]

Alvord also hired architect John J. Petit and a staff to design the houses in the development, although clients could also provide their own architect if they preferred to. Petit ended up designing many of the houses in the development, in a wide variety of styles, including Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival and Queen Anne.^[2][6] The houses in Prospect Park South were required to be substantial, freestanding homes exceeding 3,500 square feet (325 m²) and costing over US$5,000. Several other restrictions were also placed upon builders wishing to develop the lots.^[8]