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This playground, bounded by Hamilton Place, West 140th Street, and West 141st Street, takes its name from Hamilton Place, which is named for the most distinguished resident of Harlem Heights, Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804). Born on the island of Nevis in the British West Indies in 1755, Hamilton moved to New York City in 1772 and attended King’s College (now Columbia Read more...
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Abingdon Square Park shares its lineage with some of Greenwich Village’s earliest European landowners and social figures. Sir Peter Warren entered the British Navy as a volunteer in 1717 and rose to the rank of vice-admiral after an impressive tour of duty in such locales as the African coast, the Baltic Sea, the West Indies, and North America, where he Read more...
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This triangle, located at the intersection of Avenue U, Veterans Avenue, and 71st Street, is named for Bergen Beach resident and Vietnam War veteran Private First Class Cosmo Leonard Barone. Before the arrival of European settlers in the 1500s, Bergen Beach was first inhabited by members of the Canarsee tribe. These Native Americans utilized the area’s wilderness terrain, shoreline, and Read more...
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Located on Avenue L between Nostrand Avenue and East 29th Street, this playground, along with adjacent Junior High School 240, is named for the colonial Dutch settler and government servant Andries Hudde (1608-1663). Little is known of Hudde’s life before he arrived in America, save that he was born in 1608 in the town of Kampen, the Netherlands. In 1629, Read more...
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Bounded by Fort Hamilton Parkway, New Utrecht, 11th Avenue, and 46th Street in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, Alben Triangle is named for Bud H. Alben, a Brooklyn resident who was killed in World War I (1914-1918). Although little is known about Alben, this parcel of land bears a flagpole with a memorial plaque at its base, presented by Read more...
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Asser Levy Park is part of the Coney Island Complex. One of the earliest beach resorts, Coney Island began attracting visitors after the construction of the Coney Island House in 1924. A highly diverse crowd of luminaries joined the wealthy vacationers at this fashionable hotel. Writers Washington Irving and Herman Melville, politicians Daniel Webster and Henry Clay, as well as Read more...
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American Playground is named for the American Manufacturing Company, the second-largest industrial employer in Brooklyn in the early 20th century, and the original owner of this plot of land. Founded in 1890, the American Manufacturing Company produced rope and bagging. According to an article that appeared in the Brooklyn Eagle on April 19, 1919, it was the “largest cordage concern Read more...
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Albemarle Road, which runs from Flatbush Avenue to Nostrand Avenue, was originally named Ausable Avenue, and was renamed Butler Street in 1897. At the turn of the century, it was fashionable to use old English names for streets and neighborhoods. This neighborhood’s namesake is the borough of Kensington in London. Other streets in the neighborhood also have English names. In Read more...
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“Born and bred in Brooklyn the U.S.A./ They call me Adam Yauch but I’m M.C.A.” – “No Sleep Til Brooklyn,” The Beastie Boys This Brooklyn Heights playground is named for Adam Yauch, an artist, a filmmaker, an activist, and one of Brooklyn’s most influential musicians. Most famous as ‘MCA’ of the legendary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees the Read more...
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Kenneth Everett Aimee (1931-1954), a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force, resided in this area of Brooklyn. Following in his father’s footsteps, Aimee joined the Air Force and was stationed at the Suffolk County Air Force Base. Lieutenant Aimee died at age 23 when his plane crashed minutes after take-off. Lieutenant Colonel Joseph M. Aimee, Kenneth’s father, flew Read more...
