Lewis H. Pounds: The Man Who Named Ditmas Park

Real estate developer Lewis H. Pounds and his business partner Delbert Decker created the subdivision of Ditmas Park, which extends from Newkirk Rd to Dorchester Rd & Ocean Ave to the subway tracks (then the Brighton Beach Railroad tracks). Later, he would buy and develop Ditmas Park West, which extends the area from the subway tracks to Coney Island Ave.

Originally from the Midwest, Pounds saw so much promise in Flatbush farmland that he worked really hard to convince other white men to invest their money how he wanted them to. He finally succeeded, and in 1902 he was able to buy the land from the Ditmas family, who had owned land in Flatbush since the 1640s. Then he did something that was still rather revolutionary at the time: he paid to have electricity, sewer, and other utility lines put in. He paved the streets and even put in a variety of trees, including the tulip trees that can still be found throughout Ditmas Park today (although they’re called “tulip trees,” the flowers they produce don’t actually look that much like tulips). As Mark Kosin of Bklyner notes, “Pounds and Decker had strict design regulations that would give the neighborhood its truly unique and cohesive aesthetic.”

Now super-attractive to people who were hiring architects and builders to custom-make homes, Pounds and Decker quickly flipped the land and made a ton of money for those investors Pounds had worked so hard to convince. Of course, it being the 1900s, they proudly practiced housing discrimination in order to make sure that only other WASPs lived in their new developments. (The occasional Catholic was probably allowed.)

Pounds, who later became Brooklyn borough president, loved the area so much that he ended up living on e. 17th street in Beverly Square East. He was also instrumental in the founding of St. Mark’s Methodist Church nearby.

Lewis H. Pounds, the man who bought a ton of land from the Ditmases, then sold it to some other people.

Ditmas Park Developer Lewis H. Pounds lived (and died) in this house on e. 17th St in Beverly Square East.

I believe this is an ARTS & CRAFTS style home (check out that stone foundation!).

It’s fitting that the former home of Lewis H. Pounds is shrouded in trees, because he’s the dude who’s responsible for the planting of so many different varieties of street trees in our neighborhood.

Ad for Ditmas Park in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle by Pounds & Decker.