The Brooklyn Dome ... the first stadium planned for Flatbush and Atlantic

Gothamist, the city blog, did some neat historical research this week on the first sports stadium planned for the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues, a giant Buckminster Fuller-designed dome to house the Dodgers, then stuck in deteriorating Ebbets Field further down Flatbush.

The article focuses on a Mechanix Illustrated article on the stadium, perhaps to be called the "Brooklyn Sports Center." It would have been located mainly where the Atlantic Terminal Mall now sits across Atlantic from Barclays Center, but one plan called for it to straddle Atlantic.

Gothamist's Jen Carlson writes of the planned stadium, nicknamed the Brooklyn Dome or Dodger Dome...

It was to be located on a 500-acre plot of land in the center of a four square block area near Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues, and would have included air venting, shadowless lighting fixtures, a huge underground car park with four automobile entrances, a promenade lined with shops, restaurants and other facilities.

That's a lot bigger piece of property than even Pacific Park (nee Atlantic Yards) will eventually take up ... about 22 acres.

A lot of people liked the idea and the New York State Legislature created a public authority to develop a new Ebbets Field but Robert Moses, the all-powerful czar of highways, bridges and parks, said no. He told O'Malley the plan would create a "China Wall of traffic" in Downtown Brooklyn and proposed instead that the Dodgers move to Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, near where Shea Stadium and Citi Field were eventually built.  O'Malley wanted the Dodgers to remain in Brooklyn.

Moses and Dodger owner Walter O'Malley were at a stalemate when Los Angeles filled the void and the Dodgers left in 1957.  Fifty-five years later, the Nets moved into Barclays.

• Behold, The 1950s Baseball Dome That Would Have Kept The Dodgers In Brooklyn - Jen Carlson - Gothamist