DYKER HEIGHTS, LONG ISLAND

Dyker Heights, Long Island

Dyker Heights is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of New York City borough of Brooklyn, Long Island, New York. The neighborhood is known for its wealthy residential living in the area. It is located in between of Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, and Gravesend Bay and bounded to the west by Interstate 278, the north by Bay Ridge Avenue, to the east by Sixteenth Avenue, and to the south by Fort Hamilton. Its population is comprised mostly of European Americans (largely Italian) and recently Asian Americans (largely Chinese). Its main commercial street is 13th Avenue which is also known as Dyker Heights Boulevard consisting mainly of gourmet food shops.

Early in the history of Dyker Heights, Walter L. Johnson continually purchased consecutive tracts of land until the boundaries of Dyker Heights stretched from Seventy-Ninth Street in the north, roughly Eighty-Sixth Street in the south, Tenth Avenue to the west, and about 300 feet (90 m) east of Thirteenth Avenue to the east.

The original inhabitants of Dyker Heights were mainly of Anglican background and they were the ones who established the Saint Philips Episcopal Church which is still very active today. In recent times, only half of the approximately 150 homes built by developer Walter L. Johnson are able to remainwhile the others have been replaced by large Mediterranean villas, condos, as well as semi- and fully attached homes. Very few of these homes fit into the historic context of Dyker Heights and very few have been constructed with the high level of design, craftsmanship, and materials exhibited by the Saitta House. The house is very significant in the area of architecture as a remarkably intact, a high-style example of Queen Anne residential architecture and for its association with the development and planning of Dyker Heights, a turn of the century suburban development in Brooklyn.

Dyker Heights has great transportation with the city bus service running well where there is the R and N subway. Probably one of the greatest perks of living in these neighborhoods is the Express Bus service into Manhattan. The community has many good schools, both elementary and high schools whether a private or a public one. The Poly Prep Country Day School is one of the most exclusive and top private school in the area. Dyker Heights is very much known for its long-time tradition of excessive Christmas decorations erected each year by its residents. Come and explore the area at night from mid-December to the New Year and you will be amazed the extraordinary Christmas celebration lights. Housing in Dyker Heights is expensive with many of its houses are mini-mansion or actual mansions but there is nothing that can be properly termed an estate. Dyker Heights is also home to the once private, now public Dyker Beach Golf Course and a very famous waterfront Dyker Beach Park.