Boerum Hill is a neighborhood of Brooklyn that occupies 36 blocks bounded by State Street to the north, 4th Avenue to the east, Court Street to the west, and Warren Street to the South. The Boerum Hill Association considers the southern boundary to be a combination of Wyckoff and Warren Streets but many residents say the neighborhood extends as far south as Degraw Street. Boerum Hill is surrounded by Park Slope, Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights.
As of 2010 census, there were 24,019 people residing in the area. The median income for a household in the village is $73,452.
By the turn of the century this simple plot of Dutch farmland had become the theater center of Brooklyn, the nearby Brooklyn Academy of Music surrounded by playhouses of all description.
Boerum Hill is named for the colonial farm of the Boerum family that occupied most of the area. It was built mainly between 1860 and 1880, serving as a home for middle-class and upper middle-class people. The Irish and Italians dominated the area for decades until they began to move to the outer edge after World War II. Before the 1960s, Boerum Hill was part of a larger area known as South Brooklyn, or referred to as North Gowanus, but it became known as Boerum Hill when financially well-off people moved in and began to modernize homes in the neighborhood. Early development was spurred by construction of the Gowanus Canal in the 1840s.
The streets of Boerum Hill are lined with shady trees and majority of the private houses in the area are town houses and are three or four stories tall. The prices rise as one travels north and west within the neighborhood away from the Gowanus Canal. The availability of independent school education on Boerum Hill has three fine schools such as St. Ann’s, Packer Collegiate, and the Brooklyn Friends School, a Quaker institution that has served the neighborhood of Boerum Hill as well as others for nearly 125 years. Boerum Hill has also two public elementary schools: P.S. 38, the Pacific School; and PS 261, the Philip Livingston School, which is a magnet school for the arts. The Smith Street experienced a renaissance in the past few years has now many restaurants, boutiques, and shops. The Atlantic Avenue is famous for its antique stores and Arab-American restaurants. The area has a number of subway lines such as the Bergen Street stop on the F train, the Pacific or Union Street stops on the M/N/R, or Hoyt-Schermerhorn on the G train. The residents of Northwest Boerum Hill may use the Borough Hall or Jay Street-Borough Hall stations.
