Crown Heights - A Multi-Cultural Brooklyn Neighborhood

Eastern Parkway divides Crown Heights into two sections and was originally created with six lanes to accommodate carriage riders, horseback riders, and pedestrians. The horses are gone, but Eastern Parkway has retained the shade trees, park benches, limestone homes, gracious apartment houses, and religious institutions that continue to make it a delightful promenade. On the neighborhood's side streets, the residential community features one- or multi-family limestone or brownstone dwellings, some architecturally significant mansions, and apartment buildings.

Crown Heights has a large West Indian population, making Eastern Parkway a fitting location for the Annual West Indian Day Parade, which celebrates the cultures of Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and Grenada and attracts more than 1 million people every Labor Day.

The worldwide headquarters of the Lubavitch movement of Hasidic Jews is located here and members of the sect live throughout the community. Tensions between diverse neighborhood groups resulted in riots in 1991, but powerful community leaders have worked hard to successfully heal the wounds, stress peace, and strengthen the bonds between the area's disparate residents.

Crown Heights has a number of cultural assets including the Brooklyn Museum and Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which border it, and the Brooklyn Public Library's Central Library at Grand Army Plaza and Prospect Park, which are a short walk away. Crown Heights also is home to the Brooklyn Children's Museum, Medgar Evers College, and the newly constructed Jewish Children's Museum.