Madison

Understanding Madison

The farmhouses show two different responses to urban development. The Wyckoff-Bennett house was turned when its land was divided into streets and building lots in the late nineteenth century. The Ryder house stood across a planned street and was moved and altered in 1929. Neither should be read as an untouched colonial streetscape.

Madison remains a distinct name in Community Board 15’s neighborhood list. The historical reports use Gravesend for the earlier township, a much larger geography than today’s map collection. A historic town name and a present neighborhood outline describe different things.

Places to explore

• Wyckoff-Bennett Homestead exterior

  1669 East 22nd Street

  Built about 1766, the small frame farmhouse has a long porch and gently curved roof eaves. NYFE also lists it as the Henry and Abraham Wyckoff House.

• Elias Hubbard Ryder House exterior

  1926 East 28th Street

  The gable end faces the street, while projecting eaves and a decorated entrance transom preserve older building traditions. The relocation history helps explain its altered size and form.

• Kings Highway Library

  2115 Ocean Avenue

  The branch received its current building in 1954 after earlier deposit-library premises. Its collections and programs offer an indoor counterpart to the farmhouse exteriors. Check the current opening schedule.

Planning a visit

Choose the East 22nd Street house, East 28th Street house or 2115 Ocean Avenue library as your destination before checking current service. BPL lists the B/Q and local buses for the library; that does not establish a station beside either farmhouse.

BPL lists Kings Highway Library as fully accessible. The two houses are exterior architectural stops; the designation reports do not grant entry to their land or interiors. No checked step-free route between them is established.