While the names of some other Brooklyn neighborhoods are fanciful at best (Boerum Hill was never the site of a hill, for instance), Park Slope came by its moniker honestly: The neighborhood borders the western slope of Prospect Park. This 526-acre park is the pride not only of Park Slope but of the entire borough, and rightly so. In addition to grassy lawns, playgrounds, trails, and sport fields, Prospect Park boasts the country’s first urban Audubon Center, Brooklyn’s only lake, a zoo, an ice rink, and even a cemetery.
A waterfall in Prospect Park. Image: Allison Meier/Flickr
The idea of building a park on Prospect Hill took shape in the late 1850s, as the City of Brooklyn was becoming the country’s first commuter suburb. Community leaders hoped a large public park would help attract more upscale residents, especially if the park was as magnificent as Manhattan’s nascent Central Park. To that end, Central Park’s designers, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, were commissioned to design Prospect Park in 1866. The park opened to the public just a year later, though construction continued until 1895.
The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Arch at Grand Army Plaza. Image: Jeffrey O. Gustafson/Wikimedia
Although the park has nearly 20 entrances scattered around its perimeter, Grand Army Plaza is considered the “official” entrance. It is certainly the most majestic. Located at the northern corner of the park, this oval entryway was one of the first elements of the park to be designed. As well as the main entry to the park, the plaza marks the beginning of the Eastern Parkway, also the brainchild of Olmsted and Vaux. This was the world’s first highway designed for recreational driving, with limited commercial access. The most prominent feature of the plaza, the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Arch, was unveiled by President Grover Cleveland in 1892, though the bronze statues were added a few years later. Since 1989, the plaza has been the site of a year-round farmers’ market on Saturdays.
The year-round Greenmarket. Image: er Guiri/Flickr
Among Prospect Park’s miles of paths for strolling, running, and bicycling is a five-kilometer (3.35-mile) loop popular with inline skaters and runners, including the Prospect Park Track Club. There is a 3.5-mile bridle path as well, and you can rent horses (and taking riding lessons) at Kensington Stables, just outside the park across from the 40-acre Parade Ground. Originally designed for militia drills, the Parade Ground is now home to baseball, football, and soccer fields along with basketball, netball, tennis, and volleyball courts and one of the park’s seven playgrounds. One-time batting champ Tommy Davis, legendary pitcher Sandy Koufax, and former Yankees manager Joe Torre are among the Major League Baseball stars who got their start at the Parade Ground.
The lake in Prospect Park. Image: King of Hearts/Wikimedia
The 55-acre Prospect Park Lake—Brooklyn’s only lake—provides more recreation, with catch-and-release fishing throughout the summer. According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the lake is home to the state’s largest population of largemouth bass. You can boat on the lake as well; from late March through mid-October the park’s LeFrak Center rents single and double kayaks along with pedal boats that can seat up to four people. LeFrak Center also has two outdoor ice rinks for skating, curling, brooming, and hockey throughout winter. From spring through autumn one of the ice rinks is converted into a roller rink, while the other becomes the Splash Pad, a play area with more than 20 water jets for use by children ages 12 and younger. Canines can get in on the fun too; not only are dogs welcome, with special off-leash hours at the park’s vast Long Meadow, but there is even a Dog Beach.
Canines frolicking at Prospect Park’s Dog Beach. Image: cinnamonster/Flickr
This cornucopia of recreational options would be enough to set Prospect Park apart from most other parks. But it boasts other, even more notable features. The 12-acre Prospect Park Zoo houses animals as varied as alpacas and emus, though perhaps the most popular exhibit is the Sea Lion Court. Outside of the zoo, the park is home to more than 240 bird species as well as one of the last remaining forests in the borough, which makes it an ideal location for the Audubon Society’s first-ever urban center. Even if birding is not a favorite activity, the Audubon Center is worth a visit. It is housed in the park’s Boathouse, a spectacular Beaux Arts landmark that is also a popular wedding venue.
Sea lions at the Prospect Park Zoo. Image: Garry R. Osgood/Wikimedia
Other features of Prospect Park include a carousel; the Bandshell, which hosts live shows including the annual Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival; and Drummer’s Grove, where percussionists and other musicians have gathered to jam on Sundays since 1968. Perhaps the oddest element of the park, however, is the 10-acre Quaker cemetery in the southwest corner. The Friends Cemetery predates the park by two decades and is still in use. Technically it is not part of the park but rather surrounded by it. Among the approximately 2,000 people buried there is actor Montgomery Clift.