Early 1900s

Crown Heights began as a posh residential neighborhood, a “bedroom” for Manhattan’s bourgeois class. Beginning in the early 1900s, many upper-class residences were erected along Eastern Parkway. Away from the parkway was a mixture of lower middle class  residences, with a population peak in the 1920s. Before World War II Crown Heights was amongst New York City’s premier neighborhoods, with tree lined streets, an array of cultural institutions, parks, and numerous fraternal, social and communal organizations.

Mid-20th Century

Between World War II and the 1960s many middle class Jews migrated to Crown Heights. Some 75,000 Jewish people were living in the neighborhood making it a hub for Jewish life. There were some thirty large synagogues, with the 6th Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson, establishing 770 Eastern Parkway as the world headquarters for Chabad-Lubavitch in 1940.

Late 20th century

The 1970s and 1980s was a time of demographic movement for Crown Heights, with many of the Jewish residents moving out to Flatbush, Williamsburg, and Boro Park and the African American community moving in. Yet, the Lubavitch Chassidim, at the request of their leader, the 7th Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, remained in the neighborhood.