It roughly comprises the southern portions of East New York between Flatlands Avenue to the north, and Jamaica Bay and the Gateway National Recreation Area to the south, with the Brooklyn neighborhood of Canarsie to the west and the Queens neighborhood of Howard Beach to the east.

For most of its history, the neighborhood of Spring Creek was considered the place where "the city came to an end",[2] consisting of undeveloped marshland used as illegal dumping grounds, and hosting several large landfills and an incinerator during the 20th century.

[5][15][4][9][16][17] In the 1650s, Dutch colonists began settling in the eastern sections of Brooklyn, forming the towns of Flatbush and New Lots (the latter the predecessor to East New York).

This farm included a house and stable at the modern-day intersection of Elton Street and Vandalia Avenue.

[5][4] Beginning in the 1920s, the city planned to develop a large ship and rail terminal along Jamaica Bay, particularly along the Paerdegat Basin in nearby Canarsie, to relieve port operations in the greater New York Harbor.

[16][17][22] Land for both projects along Jamaica Bay in the area was acquired via eminent domain in 1938, and Shore Parkway opened in 1940, with an interchange to the south end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

[24] The Milford Street Landfill began operations in the 1930s, occupying much of the area where the Gateway Center now sits.

[5] This area later became known as the Vandalia Dunes due to its sandy landscape, and became a habitat for the Henslow's sparrow and other bird species.

This was in part due to its remoteness from the city's focal points (such as Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn), its distance away from the nearest rapid transit lines, the presence of the landfills, incinerator, and water treatment plant in the area, and noise from the nearby Idlewild Airport (since renamed as John F. Kennedy International Airport).

[10][2][4][19] A 1943 city profile called the area "Brooklyn's least populated district", with many paper streets remaining as mapped but not constructed.

[10] Smoke and odor from the incinerator and landfills, meanwhile, were reported to extend to the Queens neighborhoods of Howard Beach and Ozone Park.

The territory, particularly the landfills, is also said to have been used for dumping corpses, most notably by Murder, Inc. and the Gambino crime family;[2][19][35][36] human remains from modern incidents have been unearthed as recently as 2013.

[5][30][38] That year, a major development project was proposed, which would include a state mental health facility, several intermediate schools, a high school, a community college, a shopping center, a branch library, an expansion of Spring Creek Park, and several thousand housing units including 8,000 middle-income condominium-style units.

[4] Following community protests, and seepage of contaminated oil into Jamaica Bay, the Pennsylvania and Fountain landfills ceased municipal waste operations in 1979 and 1985 respectively, after which they were absorbed into the Gateway National Recreation Area.

[48] Starrett City (also known as Spring Creek Towers) is the largest subsidized rental apartment complex in the United States.

[54] A number of parcels of undeveloped land totaling 13 acres (5.3 ha) were separated out from the residential site as part of the refinancing.

[53] These sections are Ardsley, Bethel, Croton, Delmar, Elmira, Freeport, Geneva, and Hornell; each named after municipalities in New York State.

Located south of Flatlands Avenue and north of Gateway Center II between Elton and Erskine Streets, the neighborhood consists of modular prefabricated one-to-three family rowhouses assembled at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

[47][59][60][61][62] The land was originally assigned by the city to the Starrett Housing Corporation for development in 1989; the project was known as Spring Creek Estates.

The three-phase affordable-housing project features six-story apartment buildings with retail space on the ground level.

It was opened in 1989, developed by General Atlantic Realty Corporation, and paid for by Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits and the city's 421a tax-abatement certificates.

It consists of man-made parkland, marshland along the Jamaica Bay Shore, and the former Pennsylvania and Fountain Avenue Landfills.

[80] There are two major shopping malls in the area: A branch of the New York School of Career and Applied Studies, part of Touro College, is located in Starrett City.

[81] The B6, B13, B14, B15, B20, B82, B82 SBS, B83, B84 and Q8 local buses serve the Spring Creek area, while the BM2 and BM5 provide express service to Midtown and Lower Manhattan.