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Located in the heart of Crown Heights, Brower Park has been an outstanding educational and recreational resource for children for over a century. The City of Brooklyn purchased what is now the southern portion of the park in 1892 and improved the property within two years. The 1894 Annual Report of the Brooklyn Department of Parks boasted that “Its [the Read more...
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Spanning over 1.3 miles of Brooklyn’s waterfront, from the Columbia Heights waterfront district to the Manhattan Bridge in DUMBO, this treasure of a park offers breathtaking views of Lower Manhattan’s panoramic skyline and the New York Harbor. Tourists and New Yorkers alike can be seen admiring the iconic cityscape across the East River while strolling along a continuous promenade of Read more...
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Originally a marshy wasteland, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has been transformed into one of New York City’s most beautiful parks. The Wisconsin Iceberg that shaped Long Island, Manhattan, and the Bronx millions of years ago gave this land its unique knob-and-kettle terrain of small ponds and hills by carving depressions in the soil. Brothers Frederick Jr. and John Charles Olmsted Read more...
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This playground is located at Brighton 2nd Street, Brightwater Court, and the Boardwalk in the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn. In 1868 entrepreneur William A. Engeman began to purchase land in the area and transformed a tract of marsh land and sand dunes into fairgrounds, hotels, and a bathing pavilion. In 1878 the area was named Brighton Beach for Britain’s Read more...
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This playground and the adjacent housing development were built at the same time and are named for one of New York’s oldest families, the Brevoorts. Today, the Brevoort real estate firm still maintains some of the family’s holdings, including a Manhattan residential building called the Brevoort at 11 Fifth Avenue. The Brevoort name, like the name Stuyvesant, is synonymous with Read more...
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This playground, bounded by Bedford Avenue, East 24th Street and Avenues X and Y, serves as a lasting memorial to World War I veteran William A. Brown. Brown lived only a few blocks from here at 1818 Voorhies Avenue. He served with Wagon Company G of the 108th Ammunition Train, 28th Army Division. On October 8, 1918, this young man Read more...
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This playground, located on South Third Street, with Bedford Avenue to its east, is named for Berry Street, to its west. Berry Street was named for the Berry family, among the earliest settlers of Williamsburg, who owned a considerable portion of it for more than a century. Williamsburg’s first mayor, Dr. Abraham J. Berry (1799-1865), was born in New York Read more...
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This site and the surrounding neighborhood of Bensonhurst grew exponentially following the construction of steam railroads in the 1870s. This new technology led to the development of the agricultural town of New Utrecht, located in the southwestern region of what is now Brooklyn. In the late 1880s, developer James Lynch bought land here from the prominent Benson family, planted five Read more...
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Bounded by Pitkin Avenue, North Conduit Avenue, Drew Street, Forbell Street, and Belmont Avenue, Belmont Playground, as with the adjacent avenue, is named for August Belmont (1816-1890), a wealthy financier and diplomat. Belmont was born August Schonberg in the Rhineland-Palatinate portion of Germany. Born poor, and facing discrimination because he was Jewish, he left his small village at the age Read more...
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This playground takes its name from the adjacent Bayview Houses, which overlook historic Jamaica Bay. The development is bordered on three sides by Canarsie Park and on the fourth by Seaview Avenue. The name for Canarsie Park comes from the Canarsie (or Canarsee) Indians, who lived in this area. They called this area Keskachauge (or Kestateuw), but Dutch settlers renamed Read more...
