Constructed in 1796, the Reformed Church of Flatbush, located in what is now an African-America and West Indian community, indicates the influence of English Neoclassicism with its central tower and multi-tiered steeple. At least the third church structure on this site, the current church is surrounded by a much older cemetery containing gravestones of many of the village's most notable families of Dutch descent. Some stones have inscriptions in Dutch. The church itself has some beautiful stained-glass windows with coats of arms and dedications of the Dutch families that used to worship there, as well as an old embroidered Brooklyn coat of arms depicting the official seal of the borough of Brooklyn: "even Draght Mack Maght" (old dutch for: "in unity there is strength," often not spelled correctly in its old rendering). It was also the official seal of the Dutch Republic and the Dutch Reformed Church. The church house across from the cemetery has some notable Tiffany windows. The churches at Flatbush, Flatlands, and Brooklyn (now the Old First Reformed Church in Park Slope) were all established in 1654. However, the minister (domino) of the Flatbush church presided over churches of other villages into the mid-18th century. The Dutch Reformed Church was the one of the most potent forces of cultural identity and connection with the Dutch Republic until after the American Revolution. The Dutch language only gave way to English in Kings County's churches in the late 18th century; an English afternoon service was introduced in Flatbush in 1792. Flatbush was the political and cultural heart of Dutch Brooklyn. its original settlement in the 1630s occurred along the Native-American trail cutting diagonally across western Long Island from Jamaica Bay to the ferry landing at the East River. Known as Ferry Road, then Flatbush Road, and finally Flatbush Avenue, this is one of the great historic thoroughfares of America. The first settlement consisted of 48 farmsteads of 50 acres, 24 on each side of the avenue. Farmhouses faced the roadway, and barns and other outbuildings extended behind them on long rectangular plots. Settlement began along the southern reaches of the avenue near the border with Flatlands, but the positioning of the church at the midpoint of the avenue's course through the township fixed its center.