In 1973 the Carrol Garden’s Historic District was designated. Brownstones in this area have unique large lots with front yards. The historic district consists of townhouses built between the 1860s and 1880s. They are two and three story brownstone buildings in the neo-Grec and late Italianate styles located in a rectangle bounded by Carroll, President, Smith, and Hoyt Streets. Carroll Gardens townhouses feature uniform setbacks, with fenced-in front yards and landscaped gardens, which have became a part of the neighborhood’s name.
Carroll Gardens was named after Charles Carroll, the only Roman Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, and was once considered part of the larger South Brooklyn-Red Hook area. It was settled by Norwegian and Irish immigrants in the early 19th century. It gained in popularity as a residential neighborhood in 1846 as the Hamilton Avenue Ferry provided transportation to lower Manhattan. Italian-American immigrant dock workers from both Red Hook and the Navy Yard started settling here in the later 19th Century, and the largely Irish population had left by the 1920s. Carroll Gardens itself took on a more distinct and separate identity after the Gowanus Expressway divided it away from its former Red Hook boundary in 1941. In the 1960s, the neighborhood began to attract a new population of urban professionals and former Manhattanites, because of its convenience to the city, it’s historic homes, the low-rise, human scaled neighborhood, and its reputation as simply a great place to live. It is today characterized by a vibrant mix of ethnic, economic, and cultural diversity. The neighborhood’s Italian-American influence can still be seen today with its with bakeries and pork stores, along with some of Brooklyn’s most popular eateries— Frankie’s 457 Spuntino, Sal’s Pizza, Gersi, and Lucali lining the main drag on Court Street.
The larger Carroll Gardens area is generally considered to be is bounded by Cobble Hill to the northwest, Boerum Hill to the northeast, Gowanus to the east, Red Hook to the south, and the Columbia Street Waterfront District on its west.
