This site, originally owned by Captain John Martin, became known as the Brooklyn Farm after Martin sold it in 1901 to his grandson, Earle Brown, who expanded it from rich Hennepin County farmland into a larger estate. Brown first pursued breeding award-winning Belgian horses, but the farm became notable for developments beyond agriculture. In 1911, the village of Brooklyn Center was formed at a meeting held there. During World War I, Brown offered the farm as a training field for U.S. military aviators, and although that offer was declined, the property became Minnesota’s first commercial flying field in the summer of 1918, with hangars, pilot training, and airport use. Brown later served as Hennepin County sheriff from 1920 to 1929 and again from 1943 to 1947, organized the Minnesota Highway Patrol in 1929 using the farm as a training facility, and unsuccessfully ran for governor in 1932. He lived on the farm until his death in 1963, raising horses and collecting carriages. After willing the farm in 1949 to the University of Minnesota in hopes it would become an Agricultural Extension Center, Brown saw that plan altered after his death, when the University sold the land and used the proceeds to build the Earle Brown Continuing Education Center on the Saint Paul Campus. In 1985, the City of Brooklyn Center acquired the original homestead buildings and property, preserving them as a link to the area’s agricultural heritage and to Brown’s place in Minnesota history.