Sheepshead Bay - A Prime Brooklyn Neighborhood

The cool ocean breezes and location Sheepshead Bay an ideal destination for tourists. Hotels began arriving in the early 1800s, and tourists also enjoyed the area's fine seafood restaurants and casinos. Beginning around 1880 the Coney Island Jockey Club opened a horse racing track, the Sheepshead Bay Race Track, in the area. New laws passed in 1910 made horse racing unprofitable, so the track added other attractions. In 1915, it was converted to the Sheepshead Bay Speedway for auto and motorcycle racing, but that operation closed in 1919.

The first farm in the area sold for development in 1877, and housing was later built on the former site of the Sheepshead Bay Race Track. At the northern end of Sheepshead Bay in an area called Homecrest, single family, Victorian homes were built at the turn of the 20th Century, and the area surrounding James Madison High School is known as Madison and features graceful homes on tree lined streets. In the 1920s and 1930s, homes were built, six- to eight-story apartments were built, summer homes were winterized for year round use, and in the 1950s, two-family, brick attached row homes were constructed in the eastern section of the neighborhood. By the 1960s, Sheepshead Bay the fastest growing area of Brooklyn. The area called Plumb Beach has been part of Gateway National Recreation Area since 1972.

The area's history as an agrarian community is still visible, however, in the Dutch Colonial style of architecture that includes two New York City landmarks ― the Wyckoff-Bennett Homestead, built in 1766, and the Elias Hubbard Ryder House built in 1834 at 1926 East 28th Street.

Families appreciate the neighborhood schools including Madison High School, Bay Academy of Arts and Sciences, a magnet middle school for gifted students on Emmons Avenue at Shore Boulevard, and St. Edmund's High School.