A true force in preserving Brooklyn’s Victorian Flatbush, and the matriarch not just of her family but of a neighborhood, Mary Kay Gallagher passed away at her home in Prospect Park South on Thursday, November 24, just over a month shy of her 103rd birthday.
Despite being a well-known name in Brooklyn real estate across generations, Gallagher’s involvement in the industry didn’t start until later in her life. She moved to her Marlborough Road home in 1959 with her husband, John, and their six children and quickly got involved in the neighborhood association. After years of Gallagher’s husband leading the organization, the next president encouraged Gallagher to start selling homes in the surrounding area after hearing brokers were encouraging buyers to have boarders.
“This was the last thing we wanted in these lovely Victorian homes, detached, with driveways and garages and spacious rear yards,” Gallagher told Brownstoner in 2012. “So I took on the challenge and started asking around…I got my license and the rest is history. I did not have to advertise! It worked by word of mouth. Just phone calls and talking with people we know… no advertisements. This was 1970.”
Gallagher formed her namesake agency, Mary Kay Gallagher, working out of her Marlborough Road home, and led it until she was in her 90s, becoming one of the foremost experts on homes in what is known as Victorian Flatbush. The area includes a slew of micro neighborhoods tucked between Caton Avenue on the north, Avenue H on the south, Coney Island Avenue on the west and Flatbush Avenue on the east.
But according to her 2012 Brownstoner interview, “My favorite neighborhood, of course, is Prospect Park South. It’s so convenient to everything – transportation, shopping, the expressway – and we have driveways! We can all park our cars, it’s not like Park Slope.”
Mary Kay and John Gallagher in their home on Marlborough Road. Photo via Alexandra Reddish
In the late 1970s, Gallagher was one of a key driving force behind the landmarking of Prospect Park South in 1979. Her map of Victorian Flatbush neighborhoods, based on her extensive knowledge of the area’s historical development, remains authoritative today.
In 2013, Gallagher’s granddaughter Alexandra Reddish took over the business after years working at her grandmother’s side. One of the key lessons Gallagher passed on, Reddish said, was “90 percent of it is just talking to people and almost being like a therapist.”
“She was very good at that, just putting people at ease because emotions did run high,” Reddish told Brownstoner. “She wasn’t a pushy broker, she always would say, ‘I don’t sell them, I just show them.’ That was always a big thing for her.”
The other long lasting lesson: “You’ve got to pick up the phone, you have to talk to people in person, you have to meet with them.”
“She used a cell phone, but she’d be like, ‘Alexandra, pick up the phone, you’ve got to talk to them, or let’s go see them,’ Reddish said. “She realized that these were people’s homes they wanted to buy and she had great respect for that, she always had the values of being kind and good to people…and for some reason, she had the answer to everything.”
Gallagher’s knack for talking to people and her interest in all those who lived in and moved to the neighborhood led to many lifelong friendships, Reddish said, and her honesty and straightforwardness also meant she had a fair share of disagreements. “She was definitely strong willed and strong minded. I just met someone who said, you know, ‘I didn’t always agree with your grandma, but you could always talk to her.’”
“She was no nonsense. She was very direct and to the point, you know, firm, nice, but loving, she loved her family, loved her neighborhood. She was the first female president of Prospect Park South.”
Gallagher was active in the area’s 1979 landmarks. Photo by Susan De Vries
During her years growing her real estate career, Gallagher saw her family grow in those same homes she was so adamant about protecting. Her family now includes nine grandchildren and eight great grandchildren. When she was 100, she got her nephew to help her buy some bitcoins. “She’s always been on the beat,” Reddish said.
Gallagher played tennis at the Knickerbocker Field Club until she was 80 and she stayed fit, active and plugged in throughout her retirement, Reddish said. “Even with Covid and what not she would call me and say ‘Alexandra, you could start showing houses again.’ She knew what was going on in the news, she said ‘Alexandra, the kids can go to school now, they’re opening up schools,’ her mind was so sharp.”
Gallagher always said she wanted to leave her house feet first, and “God willing, she got her way,” Reddish said. “She passed away peacefully in her sleep in her home where she wanted to be, on her terms, in her way. That was my grandmother.”
Her name would forever stick with Prospect Park South and Victorian Flatbush, where she will be remembered for her efforts with landmarking and protecting the area’s grand homes, Reddish said. “As long as these houses are standing, people will remember people like my grandmother who fought to keep them there.”
She said she would be dearly missed as “being the matriarch, not only of our family, but of the neighborhood.”
“She’ll be well-known as the queen of the neighborhood, I don’t think she’ll ever lose that title.”
Related Stories
E-mail [email protected] with further comments, questions or tips. Follow Brownstoner on Twitter and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.
