Neighborhood Guide

Sunset Park


Sunset Park is a neighborhood in the southwestern part of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, bounded by Park Slope and Green-Wood Cemetery to the north, Borough Park to the east, Bay Ridge to the south, and Upper New York Bay to the west.[1][4][a] The neighborhood is named after a 24.5-acre (9.9 ha) public park of the same name, located between 41st and 44th Streets and Fifth and Seventh Avenues.[5] The region north of 36th Street is also known as Greenwood Heights or South Slope.

The area was initially occupied by the Canarsee Indians until the first European settlement occurred in 1636. Through the late 19th century, Sunset Park was sparsely developed, and it was considered to be part of Bay Ridge or South Brooklyn. The arrival of elevated railways and the subway led to Sunset Park's development, with many middle-class row houses and several industrial hubs being erected in the 1890s through the 1920s. After the decline of the industrial hubs in the 1940s and 1950s, the name "Sunset Park" was given to the region north of 65th Street as part of an urban renewal initiative. Immigrant groups started moving to the neighborhood in the late 20th century due to its relative affordability, and the neighborhood's population was primarily composed of HispanicsChinese and Indians (along with less perceptible swaths of predominantly white young urban professionals and the remaining vestiges of earlier, working class ScandinavianIrish and Italian communities) by the 21st century.