Coordinates: 40°37′24″N 73°57′42″W / 40.623334°N 73.961678°W / 40.623334; -73.961678

Midwood is a neighborhood in the south-central part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is within Community District 14; is patrolled by the 61st, 66th, and 70th precincts of the New York City Police Department; and is served by the New York City Fire Department at a station on East 14th Street housing Engine 276, Ladder 156 and Battalion Chief 33.

It is bounded on the north by the Bay Ridge Branch tracks just above Avenue I and Brooklyn College campus of the City University of New York, and on the south by Avenue P and Kings Highway. The eastern border is Nostrand Avenue, Flatbush Avenue, or Coney Island Avenue; with McDonald Avenue or Ocean Parkway as the western boundary.

History

The name, Midwood, derives from the Dutch word, Midwout (middle woods), the name the settlers of New Netherland called the area of dense woodland midway between the towns of Boswyck (Bushwick) and Breuckelen (Brooklyn). Jan Snedeker, Jan Stryker, and Tomys Swartwout solicited from Director-General Stuyvesant the right of settling together on a level area of wilderness (vlacke bosch, the flat bush), adjacent to the outlying farms at Breukelen and Nieuw Amersfoort. Through Swartwout's suggestion, the settlement was named the village of Midwout or Midwolde. In April 1655, Stuyvesant and the Council of New Netherland appointed Swartwout a schepen (magistrate), to serve with Snedeker and Adriaen Hegeman as the Court of Midwout.