New Lots Avenue recalls the ‘new lots’ laid out east of Flatbush by Dutch farmers.
Dutch farmers crowded out of Flatbush started a new community here, long seen as an eastward extension of Flatbush. New Lots broke away as a separate town in 1852 and was annexed by the City of Brooklyn in 1886. In 1835 the merchant John Pitkin bought the land north of New Lots Avenue and named that area East New York.