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Midwood is a neighborhood located in the south central part of the Borough of Brooklyn, New York, USA, roughly halfway between Prospect Park and Coney Island. It is bounded on the north by Avenue I and the Brooklyn College campus of the City University of New York, and on the south by Kings Highway. The eastern and western boundaries are Flatbush Avenue to the east, and Coney Island Avenue to the west (tradition has the neighborhood ending at Coney Island Avenue, but real estate brokers lie for the purposes of advertising, saying that it extends at least to Ocean Parkway, if not beyond). The area is served by New York Subway's Q Service at Avenue J, Avemie M and Kings Highway
The name Midwood derives from the Dutch word Midwout (middle woods), the name the settlers of New Netherland gave the area of western Long Island, between the towns of “Boswijck” and "Brueckelen", because of its thick forests. Settlement began in 1652, but the area remained undeveloped for the most part until the 1920s, when large tracts of developed houses and apartment buildings were built.
The film industry established itself in the neighborhood about the same time, when the Vitagraph company occupied a studio at Avenue M and East 14th Street. Scenes from films like "Hey Pop" and "Buzzin’ Around," starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, were filmed on streets in Midwood. Warner Bros. purchased the studio in the 1920s, using it for short subjects.
NBC purchased part of the Vitagraph Studios in 1953, from which the programs of Perry Como and Peter Pan with Mary Martin were broadcast. The same studios were used in more recent decades to broadcast the soap opera Another World, the situation comedy The Cosby Show, and a few 1976 episodes of Saturday Night Live. The CBS soap As the World Turns currently tapes in the studio.
Other entertainment figures who grew up in the neighborhood were novelist Erich Segal and Woody Allen, both of whom graduated from Midwood High School, and Arthur Miller who went to James Madison High School. Director Darren Aronofsky attended Edward R. Murrow High School, also in the area. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg also grew up in the neighborhood, attending Madison. Eugene Schenderov, winner of the 2005 Rhodes Scholarship, grew up in Midwood and went to Edward R. Murrow High School, and was valedictorian there, as well as in Brooklyn College.
Many Midwood residents moved to the suburbs in the 1970s, and the neighborhood and its commercial districts declined. Drawn by its quiet middle class ambiance, the area underwent a resurgence in the 1980s. New immigrants to the neighborhood from the Soviet Union (the largest group), as well as from China, Haiti, Israel, Pakistan, Guyana, Jamaica, Iran, and India.
The main shopping streets in the area are Kings Highway, Avenue J, Avenue M, and Flatbush, Nostrand, and Coney Island Avenues.
Film
Among movies and TV shows that have been filmed in Midwood are the following:
- "America" (1972) -- TV Series
- Just Looking (1999)
- Squid and the Whale, The (2005)
References
- A Virtual Tour of New Netherland Consulted December 14, 2004
- Echoes Down the Corridor Consulted December 14, 2004
- Midwood section of Congressman Anthony D. Weiner Consulted December 14, 2004
External links
- e-midwood web site Click on one of the red lines on the map and see a panoramic view of what's across the street.
- Avenue J List of stores, community services, etc. by category.
- Avenue M List of stores, community services, etc. by category.
