2231 64th St APT 4B, Brooklyn, NY 11204

Following the opening of the Brooklyn, Bath, and West End Railroad in 1885, real estate developer James Lynch bought land from the Benson family and created a 350-acre suburb, Bensonhurst-by-the-Sea, featuring villas for 1,000 families and 5,000 shade trees in an area from 20th Avenue to 23rd Avenue and 78th Street to Gravesend Bay. Prior to that, the area had been a farming community. After the 4th Avenue subway line reached Bensonhurst in 1915, families found the community more accessible, and soon construction began on two- and three-family homes. In the 1920s, four- to six-floor walk-up apartment buildings were built. By 1930, Bensonhurst had 150,000 residents who previously lived on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The neighborhood also is well represented by popular culture. Ralph Kramden, Jackie Gleason’s character on The Honeymooners, lived in Bensonhurst; the movie Saturday Night Fever was set in Bensonhurst and Bay Ridge; and New Utrecht High School was the location for the television show Welcome Back Kotter. Today it is know for its multi-ethnic shopping, great school system, accessibility to transportation.