‘Flatbush’ recalls the Dutch name Vlachte Bos, ‘wooded plain’; Brooklyn College is nearby.
Flatbush began as the Dutch colonial town of Midwout, ‘middle wood’, chartered in 1652; it was later also known as Vlachte Bos or Flackebos, ‘wooded plain’. Brooklyn College, for which this is the closest subway station, was formed in 1930 by merging the Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and City College; its Midwood campus opened in 1937.